STRQ (Currently Undergoing Canon-Compatibility Re-Writes)
by SomeSortOfCat
Summary: 'THE ROSE SAGA' Book 1: Years before team RWBY ever arrived at Beacon, another team, destined to become some of the greatest Huntsmen and Huntresses Remnant has ever seen, called the Academy their home. Re-live the triumphs and tragedies that forged every member of Team STRQ into the powerful warriors we know they became through the memories of their former leader, Summer Rose.
1. Chapter 1: Beyond

**STRQ**

 **Chapter One: Beyond**

Ruby won't get up here in time. I can't watch this. I hear the glass arrow pierce the heart of my daughter's friend. I'll be here to meet her, I guess. It's the least I can do. After all, she and I have something in common: We both died hopelessly, fighting a foe we were fools to even attempt to defeat.

Another sound… _Dare I look? I will_.

The girl is gone, the sound I heard had been her circlet clattering to the floor at Cinder's feet. Her soul now lays where her body had been, curled up as if asleep. I find myself struck for a moment at how utterly still and tranquil her face is as her consciousness transitions from her unfairly short life into the Beyond with me. Her aura glows warmly about her silhouette, a shimmering red reminiscent of the flames deep within hearth of a welcoming fire. Ruby had finished her climb to the top of Beacon Tower just in time to see the girl die… The look of heartbroken devastation on her face stings my heart.

 _You're too late, sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'll be sure her passing is… easier than mine._

The Maiden who just murdered the poor girl to my left is now staring at Ruby. For a moment, I can't help but think helplessly that she is next, and I'll be forced to watch her die as well. After only a moment more of breathless observation, however, I see my daughter shut her eyes and I feel it: a force, like a powerful shockwave rippling across time and space, emanating from deep within Ruby's as-yet untapped, near-fathomlessly powerful soul. It's happening. Even across dimensions, I can almost see the pure rage and sorrow shimmering like waves of intense heat from her body.

Her eyes snap open and a blinding flash, the manifestation of a power unlike anything Cinder has ever seen rushes forth. Even I have to look away from the dazzling display for a moment.

"PYRRHA!"

The scream echoes through the vast emptiness of the beyond around me. The raw emotion… I don't think I'd ever seen a Silver Eyes take to their Light so ferociously before. The entire scene washes out, nothing but blinding energy radiating away from Ruby's form. The enormous grimm seems to recognize what was happening. I can sense an emotion radiating from its consciousness that most people don't believe grimm are capable of feeling.

Fear.

Its eyes dull from blazing scarlet to gray as it begins to petrify, its screech of dismay freezing in its throat as the effects of my daughter's Light set in. That same fear I felt emanating from the now-frozen wyvern washes across the formerly smug, triumphant face of Salem's pet Maiden as she struggles to comprehend what she is seeing… This girl, this young, innocent, supposedly harmless girl… My daughter. My Ruby. Her eyes are glowing, a pure-white energy radiating and curling away from her tear-drenched face as she lifts her chin to face down her friend's murderer.

" _WHAT_!?" Cinder's eyes dart back and forth from the stone monstrosity to Ruby. "That's… That's impossible!" Squinting against the painful glare of Ruby's stare, Cinder begins to hurl blasts of flame towards the young warrior before her. To her dismay, Ruby's movement to avoid the fireballs is so instantaneous, so effortless, I don't think that anything could even touch her. Scarlet rose petals filled the air wherever she had been moments before, sucked into the vacuums left by Ruby's darting motions and scorched to embers by Cinder's misaimed attacks.

Screaming in frustration, Cinder re-constitutes her twin black glass blades. The wickedly keen short swords burst into flame as Cinder's eyes glow with rage and confusion. Lunging forward, Cinder swung wildly, an undisciplined and desperate blow aimed straight at Ruby's neck. I know well the sense of perfect focus that my daughter's mind has entered as she lets the strike fall. At the last possible moment, Ruby flashes into action, deadly scythe arcing through the air as she feints back in a movement quicker than any eye, human or otherwise, could have tracked. Nigh-indestructible steel alloy and magical conjured obsidian meet. The impact rings out across the plateau upon which Beacon is situated… punctuated by a sound like shattering glass and a scream of agony that is cut short into a strained, horrible choking cry.

Fire flashes from Cinder's left eye as a shard of her own weapon slices across her face and embeds deep into the socket. The resulting cascade of scarlet blood literally sears the flesh on her face as the maiden briefly loses control of her stolen powers and their ever-ravenous flames betray her. A second flow of scalding-hot blood issues from the Maiden's throat and mouth as another razor-sharp fragment of her blade tears through her larynx and lodges itself inside her neck.

Ruby does not let up, relentlessly pressuring Cinder towards the edge of the tower. Crescent Rose continues to spin through the counterattack, and Ruby flows around the whirling weapon arc like river rapids around stone, one with the blade. Cinder is struggling to back away, eyes wide with shock and pain as she regains control of her magic and summons a gout of flame from her left hand in an attempt to cover her retreat. Ruby easily dodges the blast and, before the maiden can react, pirouettes close to Cinder's left. A pull of her weapon's trigger, and the recoil from the specially made 20-millimeter magnum round blasts Crescent Rose's blade up in a low-to-high strike that cleaves the maiden's arm, still spewing flame, cleanly off just beneath the shoulder. The severed appendage sails through the air, flames sputtering and finally dying as it plummets over the edge of the tower. Cinder didn't even have a chance to register what had happened, before Ruby followed the strike up by slamming the twin back edges of the scythe squarely into her chest.

Cinder tumbled to the floor, her severed vocal cords incapable of forming any sound beyond that horrid choking, retching cry. She clutched at her neck, trying to stem the flow of blood from her throat with her remaining right hand while dragging herself away from the vengeful warrior before her with her elbow. Tears from her remaining eye mingle with the blood that still flows freely from her wounds. I watch her crawl to the edge of the tower, looking desperately to the skies for an escape. As if summoned, a screech tears the air above the shattered tower. A greater nevermore. No trouble for my daughter…

…But as I turn, I realize something. Ruby is fading. The Light is receding back into her soul. She cannot yet control her gift; I remember how exhausted I would feel in the early days when I'd first learned how to tap into my own nascent silver-eyed abilities. I can almost feel the wingbeat of Cinder's escape and as I look, I can see its talons extend down to carry her away… back to her Queen, broken, bloodied, but still very much alive. The fight is over, but I know my daughter's war is just beginning. Turning back, I wish I could run to my baby girl. My little warrior. She's propping herself up with Crescent Rose, breathing heavily as her eyes fade from white back to silver and flutter open and closed as the power surge abates.

Ruby is weeping. On the ground before her lay a few pieces of a shattered sword, a dented matching shield, and that bronze circlet: all that remains of the girl whose form now stirs next to me. I look back to Ruby as her exhaustion overpowers her will and she falls into a deep sleep.

I never wanted this for her.

If only I had been stronger.

If only we'd won 13 years ago.

None of this would have had to happen.

"Wh-Where am I?" I turn away from the scene to face Pyrrha, who is now shakily standing as she tries to decide whether or not she recognizes me. "R—Ruby?"

"No," I answer, which seems to reassure her for a moment that another of her friends isn't already waiting for her beyond death.

"Who are you then? Are you an… An angel?"

"No, Pyrrha. Nothing like that." I can't help but smile comfortingly—A motherly instinct, perhaps—and reach over to place a steadying hand on the brave young huntress' shoulder. "That was very heroic, what you did. You should be proud. What do you remember?"

"I… It all happened so fast. I know I'm dead. I remember the arrow but I don't… I can't… Jaune!" A single, ethereal tear drips from one of her brilliant green eyes, and now another, and another. I see the change on her face as grief overwhelms Pyrrha's features. Between sobs, Pyrrha stammers, "I just… I left him. I loved him! How? How could I do that? Why? For what?"

"Sshhhh… Sssshhhh," I hush as I hug her. "I used to ask the same questions of myself when I first met my end." A pang of regret and pain stabs me now as poignantly as ever as I hear a desperate, rapid wingbeat and turn with my companion to see a new figure arrive in a burst of black feathers atop Beacon Tower next to my unconscious daughter. Pyrrha starts, noticing the scene for the first time.

A moment passes as she surveys the ruins, the stone dragon, and the two still-living figures utterly unaware of our presence beside them. The new arrival is one we both knew, though the man he used to be was quite different from the one Pyrrha had met in this very office some time ago. Tousled black hair shot through with gray, a brow care-creased by sorrow and regret, red eyes the same as his sister's and the massive transforming scythe he used to call Harbinger attached to the mag plate beneath his tattered old cape. Qrow stares warily for a moment at the colossal beast locked in brittle stone before turning to kneel by Ruby's side. I can see his wedding band, and my rings, glinting silver upon his right hand. He wore them as a constant reminder of the promise we'd made each other… A promise that neither of us ever got to keep.

I can hear his voice. "I gotcha kiddo. I gotcha." He gently scoops the daughter that should have been his off the floor and turns towards the elevator shaft, but not before shooting a pensive second glance at the bits of Pyrrha's old accoutrement strewn about the ground. He knelt again, scooping up the circlet and letting it dangle from his wrist. Hefting Ruby over his shoulder and gripping the elevator cable with his free hand, he leapt and disappeared down the shaft. The scene faded away, leaving Pyrrha and I alone in the featureless white void of the Beyond.

"What… What is this place? What did I just see?"

"This? I don't know exactly what it is. I call it the Beyond. It's certainly not what I imagined the afterlife would be. It's hard to explain but… It shows you things. Your life, people your life touched in some way. Allow your mind to center on any one memory or person for more than a moment or two and suddenly you'll find yourself there, whether you want to see it or not."

"I could see anyone?" Pyrrha asked.

"That your life touched. Yes."

"I want to see Jaune." Immediately, the featureless void about us shifts into the shapes of rubble, of buildings, of a city street… I recognize it immediately Downtown Vale. Sirens are sounding, but seem far off, as if we are hearing them from underwater. There are people milling about, the entire scene gives off an atmosphere of tense apprehension and fear. Beside a fountain in the center of the crowd sits a boy to which Pyrrha is immediately drawn. Scraggly blonde hair and fair skin, sporting a black hoodie and battle-worn armor from a bygone era. Jaune.

I've seen him before, here and there as I visited Ruby from the other side of the Veil over the last year or so. His elbows rest on his knees and his hands repeatedly tense and relax as he anxiously runs them through his hair, his head hung and the tracts of drying tears staining his face clear down to his chin. He looks up, reaches out and asks to borrow a scroll from someone nearby, takes the device, and dials a few numbers. With each failed call, he grows more agitated. Handing the scroll back to its owner, he stands and paces for a few steps. A call from the crowd that I couldn't quite make out causes him to look up. A young girl with shocking red-orange hair and a boy in a green silk kimono not unlike Mistraline High-Society people wear trotted up to him.

"What happened?" The girl asks as she hugs him. "Are you okay? Where's Pyrrha?"

"I'm here! Nora! Jaune! Ren! I'm right here!" Pyrrha screams at her team.

I remember when I first passed. My own screams, to Qrow, to Tai, even to Raven. Everyone. It is truly heartbreaking to witness someone else go through the same pain. "They can't hear you, Pyrrha."

"No! They have to! I'll make them!" Pyrrha reaches out to grab Jaune's shoulders, but her hands pass right through the vision as if it wasn't really there. She tries again, but it's useless. She looks back at me, as if I'd betrayed her. I haven't, of course, but the wounded glance causes me to flinch all the same. After a moment Pyrrha stood, moved opposite Jaune from me and continued to watch.

Jaune had been quietly shaking his head, fresh tears running down his cheeks once again. "I don't know. I don't know. Nobody is answering their scrolls on the local channels, and the tower is… She was up there… She went after some woman, the one we heard during the tournament. I…" Jaune paused, trying in vain to clear his face of tears. "I couldn't stop her. She shoved me into a locker and sent me to go get help. She doesn't stand a chance against…"

"You don't know that Jaune! Pyrrha's the best fighter of any of us, maybe she found a way…"

"You didn't see what I saw, Nora! Professor Ozpin is dead!"

"What?" Ren and Nora exclaimed while simultaneously exchanging shocked looks. "How?"

"He stayed down in a vault beneath the school to fight this woman off, to give us a chance to escape and find help… But by the time Pyrrha and I got back up to the courtyard we saw her flying up to the top of the tower."

"But you never saw him die?" Nora asked, perhaps a little too optimistically.

"Jaune's right, Nora." Ren hesitates as Nora turns her gaze forlornly at him, as if begging him not to crush any more of her hope, but then continues. "Only one of them would've come out of there alive. The professor must be dead."

"But that doesn't mean Pyrrha is! You of all people—" Nora shoots a pointed look at Jaune "—You of all people know how strong she is. She trained you!"

"Nora, I want to believe she's okay. I want to believe somehow, someway she survived, I just…"

"What about that flash? Think that might've been her?"

I see the look on Jaune's face flush with frustration. I can hear the brokenness in his voice as he shouts, drawing looks from among the crowd. "Dammit I don't know, Nora! I don't! I…"

"Jaune!" A new voice from somewhere in the throngs of people. People moved aside as Ruby's teammate Weiss came into view, followed by Qrow, still carrying an unconscious Ruby.

"Weiss!" Jaune and the survivors of JNPR run up to Weiss and Qrow. "What happened? Did you find Pyrrha?"

"What happened to Ruby?"

"Did you see Professor Ozpin?"

Weiss freezes at the sudden volley of queries. None of those questions have good answers, and she knows it. Finally, she looks at Jaune. Stepping forward, she hugs him tightly. "I'm sorry," is all she manages to say before breaking the embrace and stepping away, extraordinary grief written all over her normally stoic and elegant features.

"Is she…?" Jaune is loath to say the word.

"She's gone, son." Qrow steps in, laying Ruby down gently against the curb and putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder in an unusually empathetic gesture, especially for him. Of course, he knows exactly what Jaune is going through; I watched Qrow go through the same grief 13 years ago. From behind his back, Qrow withdraws the copper-colored circlet and hands it to Jaune. "She went bravely. Followed her destiny right to the end."

Jaune stares at the circlet for a moment, running his finger along its length as if he were brushing Pyrrha's bangs over her ear. His lip quivers. His voice shakes. "This… This isn't what she thought her destiny would be." Jaune drops to one knee, then down to both, finally sinking to all fours. Gripping the circlet tightly in one hand, he balls his other fist and punches the sidewalk angrily, again, and again, confused, frustrated, and utterly devastated. His whole body begins to shake as Nora and Ren kneel to comfort him, and his anguished wail, the sound of pure, soul-crushing denial draws even more looks from the crowd.

He doesn't care.

"No… No! NO! Jaune! I'm right here! It's okay! I'm right here with you!" Pyrrha hurls herself to her knees, trying in vain to throw her arms about the boy's now quaking shoulders as heavy, painful sobs wrack his whole body. Eventually, she collapses completely to the ground next to him, balling into a fetal position and trying to see into his eyes even though his head is pressed firmly to the ground, whispering as much to herself as to Jaune, "It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here… I'm…" Her whispers fade into sobs of her own. There's nothing I can do except stand beside Qrow and watch the two young lovers, one utterly stricken with grief and the other doomed to be forever tormented by regret as I am, separated by death but bound by memory. Time slips by. I completely lose track—minutes, hours—however long the piteous scene went on is inconsequential. Finally, however, Pyrrha lifts her head and looks up at me. Her dead, bloodshot eyes are completely out of tears to cry.

"I'm… I'm so sorry," is all I can manage.

Pyrrha responds slowly, her voice laden with the weight of her utter heartbreak. "I can't watch this anymore. Please… Please, make it stop." She sat up, arms still hugging her knees as she faced away from what lingered on behind her, rocking back and forth as her shoulders continued to quiver quietly. The veil remained open, likely because Pyrrha has not yet learned to clear her mind and will it to close. I watch as Jaune finally stands, hugs his remaining teammates, and helps Qrow lift Ruby and carry her away, leaving the scene of the city street and hushed murmur of frightened civilians as the only sound in the still air of the beyond.

After a few moments, I make my way over to Pyrrha, who hasn't even looked up since turning away. She flinches when I drape my arm and cloak across her shoulders. A few white rose petals drift off of the hem of the garment and bounce gently across the ground as if they remember doing so in even the slightest breeze back in the world of the living, though indeed there hadn't ever even been so much as a breath of wind in this plane the entire time I'd been trapped here. I notice Pyrrha shift as her attention is drawn to them.

She says nothing for a moment, but after the petals are almost out of sight she looks back to me, standing and taking a step back. "You're not the first person I've met with a cloak like that."

"I would imagine that to be so."

"Are you…"

I nod simply. "My name is Summer. Summer Rose."

"I knew you looked familiar. Ruby is—was—a good friend."

"She did her best to avenge your death."

"Is she okay? I saw her unconscious a moment ago."

"She'll be fine. Seeing your fate gave her the strength to beat Cinder, but tapping into power like that is taxing. I remember when I'd do it, I'd be out for hours, even days, before I finally learned to control it."

"Do… what? I don't understand."

"It's… Well, it's difficult to explain, Pyrrha. Ruby and I both belong to a line of very powerful warriors. We have abilities—or, powers—call them what you like. Our silver eyes are the only outward sign of them. I don't know how true it is, but my father always used to say that the things we're capable of are gifts from the Elder Brother, the god of creation. We were meant to be the protectors of Humanity, the perfect foil to the creatures of grimm during the early years of our kind's existence. The Silver-Eyed Warriors, the guardians that can slay those monsters by the dozens with just a glance."

"Silver-Eyed Warriors? That sounds…" Pyrrha stands, perplexed. "If… If your lineage was so powerful, what happened to them all? Why have I never even heard of them?"

I look away. "The same reason you went after Cinder, even when you knew the odds of winning were beyond slim. We have something in common, Pyrrha. We both died for something bigger than ourselves. I suppose you'd call it destiny. My kind, the Silver-Eyes, were stronger, faster, the most naturally skilled warriors in the world—the living embodiment of hope— and now we're nothing but a line of dead heroes, whittled away by the servants of a darkness most people will never learn about the existence of. Once, there were thousands of us. Now, hundreds of generations later, Ruby is the last that I know about."

"I suppose that explains her exceptional gifts, for her age. And it always seemed like she was born for the warrior's life, I mean, nothing ever seemed to bring her more satisfaction than a good fight."

"I know," Pausing, I look around at the city street, now full of strangers and shadows. I will the scene to dissipate, and the veil closes. Pyrrha and I are alone once again. "Ruby and I are a lot alike. She's following in my footsteps, perhaps a little too closely. It reminds me of my days at Beacon."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Well, I am dead." In any other context, I probably would have thought that funny in a morbidly ironic sort of way.

I thought I saw the corner of Pyrrha's mouth twitch upward, but she checked the motion and simply replied, "Point taken."

I don't even attempt to conceal the wistful sigh that escapes my lips. "My daughter deserves better than… This." I motioned to the emptiness around me, a featureless white void as far as the eye could see. "My sacrifice only delayed the inevitable, all those years ago. A moderate inconvenience to Salem. She returned, just like she always has, just like she always will… And now that Ozpin's dead, she has a chance to make a big play. It took him years to come back the last time. Even he can't control when he reincarnates."

"Salem? Professor Ozpin… Reincarnation? What are you talking about?"

I realized with a jolt how careless I'd just been. Things I knew about Oz, about Salem, and about the true nature of this unending war... _How much should I tell her?_ I wondered to myself. She just gave her life in a desperate attempt to protect her friends. She thought she'd followed her destiny… And I knew all too well, that sole comfort was all she had at the moment. We'd both crossed with the thought that our sacrifice meant something. But... Everything I knew—What I'd been told, and beyond that, what I'd seen with my own eyes—We were just disposable pieces in something far bigger than either of us could've imagined. I'd long given up thinking my death had really meant anything at all. What I didn't know was if telling her would lead to the same conclusion in her mind. I thought for a moment more, before shaking my head. _Her self-sacrifice is not something I have any right to take away from her,_ I thought. "It's nothing. We'll have plenty of time to talk about things here, Pyrrha. Just not now."

Pyrrha's piercing green gaze studied me. She could definitely tell I was hiding something from her. I felt a pang of guilt, followed by a confusing sense that I was doing the right thing. She'd understand, I hoped. Thankfully, she didn't press the issue, instead looking herself up and down, studying her new ethereal form. Her outline was blurred, just as mine was, almost like it was being viewed through the shimmering heat from a road on a summer day. She realized then too that Miló and Akoúo were attached to her back just as they had been in life. She drew them, staring at her sword as though remembering the moment Cinder had shattered it. "I thought that perhaps I'd get to put my sword and shield down in the afterlife."

"They become a part of you, over time. Part of your soul. Mine stayed with me as well," I replied, showing Pyrrha Thorn in its bracer on my right arm and moving my cloak aside so she could see Scourge affixed to my back. "I tried throwing them away from me a few times. They'd always end up back in place the second I'd look away from where they landed.

"It's as if this realm is telling us our fight isn't over, yet," Pyrrha observed. I didn't know if I believed that, but I didn't reply, for a time. The silence was broken after a few moments by Pyrrha's surprised gasp as the beyond shifted again began to form a scene around us. I recognized Jaune's shape forming again, sitting beside everyone who had been present before plus a few other new figures, some of whom I recognized. Yang was there. I'd been following Ruby and Qrow through the battles in Vale and over Beacon… I was glad to see her alive. It took me a moment to realize, however, that she was anything but whole.

"Yang!" I exclaimed, practically leaping over to her to get a better look at the girl that I'd always considered just as much my daughter as Ruby was. Her right arm… It was gone. A tourniquet and medical sleeve were cinched tightly down to the stump, delivering painkillers and healing surfactants straight to wound as she sat dejectedly next to Qrow. Of anyone here I would've expected hers to be the face that showed only determination and strength for the sake of her teammates and friends, but as I knelt before her all I saw in her downcast eyes was defeat and fear.

Blake, Ruby's other teammate, stood by Yang's side. The faunus girl winced and hissed as a paramedic treated a nasty stab wound on her waist. Sun Wukong was also nearby, leaning heavily on his bo staff from exhaustion but still staring warily away from the group, watching for any movement in the streets around the safe zone that would indicate a renewed attack by the Grimm.

"N…No! No, no…" I looked back, realizing that Pyrrha was beginning to panic. My shock at discovering Yang's injury was immediately replaced by concern for my companion. She couldn't keep her mind off of Jaune. That's why the beyond had showed us anything at all. Her thoughts had wandered in the silence following our conversation, and because of that, this damned place was showing her exactly what she didn't need to see more of. The same thing would happen to me years ago. I remember my hopelessness back then as I'd watch Qrow drink himself into a bitter stupor over my death, or Ruby crying herself to sleep as Yang would try to comfort her, or Tai sitting despondently in our room for hours, entire days even. I could never make it stop in those days, and now, I could clearly see myself reflected in Pyrrha's features as she sank to her knees and shut her eyes against the scene.

No. She's not going to suffer the way I did. I promised Ruby that much.

I had to act quickly. My mind spun as I dug for pleasant memories of my own in an effort to shift the scene. It's been so long. I couldn't focus on any one memory more strongly than any other… Until suddenly, an image snapped into my head. My first day at Beacon. 17 years old, just stepping off the transport for the first time, gazing ahead at the sprawling campus grounds. I can almost feel my own trepidation and excitement from that day, just as fresh as if I were actually re-living the event. I didn't know why that of all things had been my first thought, but I did know I had to act quickly before it became too late. Pyrrha's palms were pressed against her ears and she fervently begged the scene to go away. The beyond, mercilessly, did the opposite. Her anguish did nothing but entrench the visage even more firmly, pulling it further into focus. I had to concentrate hard, straining to will my fond memory to overpower her own runaway thoughts.

It took a long moment, but finally, the beyond responded. The change in ambient light from the dark of the night sky in real-time Vale to the bright morning a little more than twenty years prior caused Pyrrha to look up cautiously. "What… What happened?"

Barely a second after the query left her lips, I walked past. Not 'dead' me. Alive me, eyes bright, full excitement and wonder as my mind processed my new surroundings. Pyrrha gasped confusedly, looking from me to myself and back again. Within a moment or two she seemed to understand what was going on.

I smiled. "I'm not going to let you suffer the same way I did before I learned to manage my thoughts in the beyond. This was just the first good memory I could come up with strong enough in my own mind to overpower your focus on Jaune."

"I…" Pyrrha continued to look around, thoughts probably turning wistfully back to the way things were before the events of the last night. Turning back to me, she smiles. "Thanks. I don't think I'd have been able to stop it."

"It's not about stopping it, Pyrrha. It's about letting go. I realize how that sounds… And no one could expect that of anyone after only a few hours." I sighed at the bitter reality of the situation before continuing. "No one should ever have to expect anyone to let go of anything from a life that was stolen from them. But that's the way things work here."

Pyrrha nodded, wiping away the last of the tears that had started to fall moments before. Staring at the me of years past as I stood nearby, my companion marveled for a moment. "You and Ruby look so alike."

"Looked." I say simply, putting my hand on her shoulder as I step closer. "This was a little more than twenty years ago. Feels like it was yesterday, though."

I made my way down the main thoroughfare, a long, arrow-straight path of precisely cut hexagonal cobblestones, along with the rest of the first years who'd disembarked the transport ship with me. Everything was so new, so different… Patch was small and Signal, the combat school near the house my dad and I had moved to last year, had barely more than forty students across all six grades at any given time. I knew everyone's semblance, I'd seen every weapon, I'd even sparred with most of them at some point or another.

Here, I knew no one. Over a hundred students had debarked my transport alone, from all across Vale, from different combat schools all over the continent and beyond, even. Not a single familiar face anywhere in the crowd. I remember the wonderment I'd felt moments before morphing into tense apprehension, a feeling I had been very familiar with at this point, given how many times my dad and I had uprooted and moved as I grew up. I watched myself slip my headphones on and pull my hood over my head, a nervous habit that I think subconsciously helped me feel invisible. Redundant, given my semblance, but I'd do it anyway.

The scene began to fade out. I'd felt Pyrrha's mind relax and her own thoughts cease to vie for control of what the beyond showed us, so I in like fashion began to clear my own mind too. Unexpectedly, however, Pyrrha lifted a pleading hand. "Wait!"

"For what?" I asked, perplexed.

"I want to see what happens if… If that's alright."

"It's nothing you haven't seen before, though. Same story, different characters."

"That can't be true. You graduated, became a huntress. You had a daughter. Your story already ends far better than mine did. I'd love to see it all unfold."

The fading scene slowed in its diaspora, froze, and then slowly began to re-focus as I allowed the memory to take forefront in my mind once again. "Very well. If it will help you keep your mind off of things. I certainly don't mind."

"Thank you, Summer. Ruby told me what little she knew about the team her parents had been on together. What was your team name again?"

I watch as teenage me walks wordlessly along with the mix of students, content enough for now to stay absorbed with my music. "STRQ." I said finally. "We were team STRQ."


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Beacon

**Chapter Two: Welcome to Beacon**

Crowds like this made me anxious. To say I'd had a sheltered upbringing would be a tremendous understatement, and through all the times we'd moved around through my childhood, each new place had had one thing in common. Seclusion. My current surroundings, however, were anything but that. I was now in the middle of the biggest crowd of people I think I'd ever seen. I mean, I wasn't _scared_ or anything, but still. Probably best to stay to the edge of the group.

On I walked, doing everything I could to avoid eye contact with people. That was easy enough, as there was plenty to take in all around me. The campus truly was beautiful, like something out of one of the books Dad used to read to me every night. The main courtyard through which I now walked was dotted with trees: forever fall maple, emerald evergreens, the mix of such vibrant colors in the mid-morning light enough to make me instantly fall in love with this part of the campus. Reflecting pools were arrayed symmetrically about the courtyard, in the nearest of which I could see a mirror-perfect image of the enormous arched colonnade that surrounded its perimeter.

My head spun with the wonder of it all. As the group moved further down the thoroughfare, we passed a massive statue of a huntsman and huntress from the time of the great war, the former standing triumphantly with his sword raised high, the latter with her axe lowered, a serene, reflective look etched perfectly across her stone features. Both stood atop an outcrop of solid rock that looked to have been hewn straight from the top of some mountain somewhere, at the base of which stood a creature of Grimm. The alpha beowolf, bony jaws parted in a strikingly lifelike snarl, had its clawed, grasping hand raised high, frozen forever in the granite, its strike never to fall.

The buildings of the campus proper seemed to grow ever larger as I continued on, my sense of awe never once faltering. Intricately carved stonework and detailed statuary abounded, and here and there lay polished bronze plaques that served as small memorials, immortalizing the actions of some past hero, living or dead, who'd once called Beacon home. Looming above it all, however, was the CCT tower. It had been impressive as viewed all the way from Vale, at least to me. I'd never been anywhere near any of the big cities my entire life. To now be walking near the base of a building at least three hundred meters taller than any I'd ever seen… It was overwhelming to say the least. Up and up and up it went, its sharply peaked apex higher than the clouds that drifted lazily past. I had to crane my neck all the way back to see it.

I was so absorbed by the thought of what the view must look like from all the way up there, however, that I forgot to mind my step. To my surprise and chagrin, when my left foot tried to take the next step forward, nothing happened. The toe of my boot caught the edge of a paver that was beginning to be uplifted by the root complex of a nearby oak tree, and before I could react my bags, my dignity, and I were all sent sprawling across the ground. I ended up flat on my face, and I could feel blood welling in scrapes on my hands as I rolled over to my back and attempted to sit up. I activated my aura, and felt the minor cuts on my palms begin to repair themselves immediately. Too bad there was no quick fix like that for my pride. Looking around, I paused my music and removed my headphones. I Immediately wished I hadn't, though.

High-pitched, irksome laughter had erupted from a nearby onlooker. My head whirled to find the mocker, and found her I did, standing a few feet away. She was a bit older than me, second-year student probably. She had on black and grey striped thigh-socks, a short black cupcake skirt, and wore more studded jewelry and piercings than I could count. In her teeth she gnashed a wad of blue bubblegum, completing the look of the archetypal gender-bent playground bully, as she continued her annoying chortle along with the three hulking but dimwitted-looking boys that flanked her.

"First day an' already provin' she can't hardly walk," she cackled as soon as I made eye contact with her. She blew a huge bubble, which popped obnoxiously before she went back to gnashing the candy, lips still parted in a disingenuous grin. "Pretty sad what the combat schools is givin' my professors to work with these days." I didn't say a word. "Whassa matter sweetie? Creep got your tongue?" After her barbs continued to fail to elicit a response, her tone became somewhat less gleeful. "Hey, I'm talkin' to ya, kid."

I decided it was probably best not to answer her at all. I wouldn't start any real trouble if she didn't. I caught movement in my peripheral vision that caused me to look back to my right. About a meter away stood a boy, jet black hair and deep crimson eyes, patched up black pants and gray button-down shirt. "Yeah?" I asked, barely-concealed suspicion evident in my voice. I wasn't doing so well in the 'people' department today. Why should this guy be any different than Bubble-Girl?

"Here." Unexpectedly, the boy held out his hand. I took it after a moment, and he hauled me to my feet with surprising strength given his skinny frame.

"Thanks," I said tentatively.

He didn't reply. He just kinda gave me a look I couldn't quite place, before he turned to Bubble-Girl. Four or five strides with his lanky legs took him to less than an arm's length of her. She returned his glare in kind, and blew another bubble that nearly popped against the boy's nose. The corners of her mouth tilted upward as she continued to gnash the gum.

"Somethin' I can do for you, loser? That your girlfriend or something?" Bubble-Girl's venomous smile morphed to an even more toxic scowl.

"Never seen her before. But I think you owe her an apology."

Bubble-Girl shot a look at the thug to her right. "You hearin' this, Dez?" The guy who grunted in response was powerfully built, for an 18-year-old. Easily a head and a half taller than the boy who'd helped me, with shoulders twice as broad. He was the biggest of the three, but only just. Bubble-Girl continued to speak, circling to the black-haired boy's left. "I don't owe nobody nothing, kid. It's you first-years what's gotta earn your keep here b'fore you get any respect from me. Till then—" _WHAM._

As she'd been speaking, the boy she'd called 'Dez' had taken a casual step forward. The black-haired boy's attention had been on Bubble-Girl as she'd circled, and Dez fired off a sucker-punch so powerful it sent him sprawling and skidding back across the pavers right to my feet. I heard a whirring and clicking sound form Dez's wrist, and looked in time to notice a metallic flash as a set of knuckle dusters retracted back to their concealed position in a bracer he wore beneath the sleeve of his heavy leather jacket. Cheap shot.

Bubble-Girl cackled again as black-haired boy groaned and clutched his gut in pain. "Awww, does the widdle-biddy baby first-year have a boo-boo? Here kid, have some gum!" With that, she pulled out the chewed-up wad that she'd been working between her teeth and flicked it. The instant the nasty projectile hit the boy on the ground, it inflated into a tremendous bubble, engulfing him up to his neck and down to his knees in a pliable, sticky mass.

I looked from the black-haired boy back to Bubble-Girl. "That's… probably the grossest weapon I've ever seen."

"You should try it some time, trip-hazard," she grinned again, hitting a button on a black gauntlet she wore on her left wrist. From it, another stick of gum was dispensed into her hand, this one a bright cherry-red. She slipped the candy into her mouth and began to break it down into another tastefully disgusting sticky trap. "Ice-blue raspberry is my favorite, but I just used my last stick on your boyfriend over there. Speaking of which," a small throwing dagger flashed into her right hand from a rotating drum of them that circled a matching bracer on her other arm. In a single movement, she threw the knife at the black-haired boy, who'd begun to peel one arm out of the bubble that kept him plastered to the ground. The knife sliced the bubble and stuck into one of the pavers by the boy's head. The bubble deflated, and the gum that composed it froze solid, arresting the boy's attempts to escape entirely.

"Aw COME _ON_." The boy growled.

"Now. Like I was sayin', Ice-blue raspberry's my favorite. But I think fiery cherry-cinnamon'll have to do for you."

I couldn't pass up the opportunity for some witty banter. "Is it sugar-free?"

"What? That's beside the—No!"

"In that case, can't. Just brushed, y'know. I'll pass." I smiled, and my left hand moved behind my cloak to rest on the hilt of Scourge. Bubble-Girl picked up on the movement, and I saw another throwing dagger eject out of its magazine to her hand. Simultaneously, all three of her goons stepped up and began surrounding me. One hefted a wickedly spiked flail, another smiled as he racked a round into a heavy, bladed, pump-action shotgun, and of course, Dez' brass knuckles appeared once again in his hands as his mouth twisted into a snaggle-toothed, semi-psychotic grin. This could go pretty badly if I wasn't careful.

I looked around—turns out there was an audience—hoping someone would step in. A teacher, another student, anyone really. Nobody did, of course. My eyes met those of a girl in the group, black hair and deep crimson eyes just like the boy by my feet who continued to struggle uselessly against the ice that pinned him down. The amused look on her face made it clear she was content to watch events unfold and not get involved, and I looked away to reassess my situation.

I was completely surrounded now. Bubble-Girl's grin had continued to widen into an impossibly obnoxious Cheshire-cat-like smile. An old lesson of my father's echoed in my mind: _I love being surrounded,_ he'd say. _They're to your left, to your right, behind you and in front of you. Heh. They can't get away now._ He'd always taught me to be aggressive in situations like this. If I didn't take the offensive first, things could get uglier than they needed to. _Screw it,_ I thought, and activated my semblance. I vanished, a cloud of white rose petals dancing on the breeze where I'd been.

"What the… Where'd she go!?" One of the goons called out. His flail swung through the air where I'd been, smashing into the ground uselessly.

"It's her semblance, idiots. Dez! Yuri! Ned! Back to back. Don't let her sneak up on you. Neat trick, girlie. Ain't gonna save you though." Bubble-gum girl took up a position next to her goons. "Come out, come out, kid! We only wanna make sure you understand your place while you're here…"

"HKKKccckk—AckhhhKK!" The surprised choking sound came from Dez, right beside her. He clutched his throat in pain, like an invisible set of claws had him by the neck and wouldn't let go. Whatever the unseen force was, it yanked downward, forcing him to step forward in an effort to stay upright. When that stabilizing leg was unexpectedly kicked out from under him, however, he fell, faceplanting _hard_ into the pavers. He gasped as Scourge—my primary weapon—released its stranglehold and I dodged away.

"Right there! Get her!" Bubble-gum girl called out. Yuri swung a ham-fisted haymaker blindly in the direction he thought I must've gone. I was well out of harm's way by then, and couldn't help but laugh at the surprise on idiot number two's face when his wrist was suddenly snared by the same grip that had choke-slammed Dez a moment before. A yank and a pivot on my part took all the weight and momentum of Yuri's strike and spun it a full one-hundred and eighty degrees further than he no doubt intended. His fist smashed into Ned's jaw, sending Bubble-Girl's third goon sprawling, and as Yuri tried to regain his footing he tripped over Dez, who was trying to stifle a bloody nose and stand at the same time. I fired off a booted kick straight to Yuri's gut as he tried to lift himself off of Dez, causing him to double over and drop like bag of bricks back on top of thug number one.

"Useless morons." Bubble-Girl growled as she twirled one of her daggers in her throwing hand.

"Had enough?" I asked from behind Bubble-Girl. She whirled, hurling a dagger at empty air.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

From Bubble-Girl's left: "No." Another dagger. Several students who looked on had to dodge out of the way.

I decided it was about time I ended this, before dumb, dumber, and dumbest picked themselves off the ground or before some onlooker caught a dagger that had been meant for me. I slid low, aiming to sweep-kick Bubble-Girl's legs out from under her. In a stroke of rotten luck, however, my semblance flickered as it drained and I reappeared for the briefest of moments. Bubble-Girl saw the movement, and with startlingly quick reflexes threw another dagger that pinned my cloak to the ground as I passed. The sudden stop stunned me, long enough for Bubble-Girl to drop-kick the general area she knew my body would be. Her studded boot caught my wrist, sending Scourge clattering across the cobbles and back into view, now that my aura no longer had a direct connection to it.

I had to act fast. Bubble-Girl was readying another dagger, and I was trapped. Thorn. The ring-like chassis of my secondary weapon flicked forward from its storage position on my armored right wrist, perfectly positioned so my hand could grip the central handle that spanned the body of the weapon. The twin, tri-segmented blades were collapsed, stored against the ventral face of my gauntlet with their unsharpened back edges facing outward. As my fingers grasped the handle, however, electromagnetic energy dampers in each end of the grip disengaged and the magnetic connectors at the base of each blade pulled violently towards each other around and towards the outboard side of the ring, locking into place. Simultaneously, heavy pivots built into the connectors swung the folded blades forward with enough torque to extend each of the three segments, and the back edges of the now fully protracted blades slammed together with a satisfying metallic _CLANK._

Bubble-girl threw her dagger. She hadn't been able to see Thorn extend in my opposite hand, and I saw the surprise and frustration register in her features when rather than the hum and crackle of steel against aura, she heard the high-frequency ringing of a weapon-to-weapon impact. Her dagger ricocheted away from me as I allowed myself to reappear. She already knew where I was, there wasn't any point in wasting the energy to stay invisible. The wall of students who'd flocked to watch the fight once again parted to avoid the dagger as it sailed, tumbling and ringing still from its impact with Thorn, towards them. This time, however, it didn't clatter distantly against some far obstruction to its trajectory. Gasps from the students caused both me and Bubble-Girl to look for the reason for the hushed exclamations.

It didn't take me long to realize what the murmur had been about. There, standing in the gap between two first-years, clutching the dagger between his index and middle fingers in the exact position he'd caught it, stood the headmaster. Professor Ozpin looked from me, to the black-haired boy, to Bubble-Girl, to the three stooges who'd only just managed to pull themselves off the ground. There was a moment of tense silence, before the Headmaster pushed his little spectacles up higher onto his nose and grinned. "Students," he paused and looked around the perimeter of freshmen and upperclassmen alike before continuing, "I realize you're all excited to show each other your budding capabilities, and mano-a-mano duels like this are indeed fantastic opportunities to showcase your skills. However, I must ask that you save your energies for sparring class."

His calmness surprised me. It's like he was hardly even phased by the fact that two of his students were a blow away from hospitalizing each other… or worse. As if caught by the wind, the ring of students dispersed and went their separate ways. The raven-haired girl I'd seen earlier shared a moment of sardonic eye contact with the black-haired boy before turning and rejoining the coalescing mass of first-years as they continued on towards the auditorium. Professor Ozpin didn't linger long after either. He turned to walk away, but not before his eyes once again met mine. I could've sworn he was studying me, as if something about me drew his attention. But it was only just a moment before he continued walking. As he made his way back across the commons towards the base of the CCT tower, Bubble-Girl brushed past me roughly, collecting the dagger I'd pulled out of my cloak and tossed aside.

"Next time you're dealin' with team CNDY, you ain't gonna have him to save you."

"I'm counting on it." I smiled at her as I stood.

She stared me down for a moment, before shouting over her shoulder. "Come on, boys." Her band of bumbling morons each glared at me before forming up behind their leader and shuffling off towards the dorms. I watched them go, hoping I'd get another chance to finish that fight.

"Ahem." The black-haired boy, still stuck in bubble-gum ice, looked up at me expectantly. "Gonna help me out here or am I just waiting for this crap to melt?"

"Heh. Looks comfy."

"It's really, really not. My arm's asleep."

"Pins and needles?"

"Ohhhh yeah."

I laughed, walking over and retrieving Scourge from its resting place near a bench just off the stone pathway. A flick of my thumb switched the three-position dial built into the grip to its glowing red indicator, selecting the reservoir of 'burn' dust stored within the handle itself.

"Uhh… Whaddya gonna do with that?" The black-haired boy sounded nervous. I smiled maniacally, just to mess with him, and unspooled the entire five-meter length of carbon-ceramic nano-hex braid with a pull of the trigger and a flick of my wrist. Spaced along the length of the woven alloy filaments were razor sharp barbed segments, designed to ensure that even a passing glance with the whip would still cause significant damage. I saw the black-haired boy's eyes widen slightly, the end of the whip lying on the ground a few inches from his face.

I bowed my arm back, the braid responding smartly to the input and lifting off the ground where it seemed to hang for a moment.

"Wait, wait… Bad idea, bad ideaaaAAAAHHCRAP!" The boy's apprehensive protests quickly became a shout of unmitigated fear as I ripped my arm back down. Ion emitters built in each sharpened link activated, glowing red-orange in a programmed response to the motion. Scourge snapped with a sound like a thunderclap and a bolt of burning hot plasma raced down its length, licks of fire dancing through the superheated air around the whip. The wave of pure heat energy jolted through the braid, jumping from emitter to emitter and arcing like a bolt of burning lightning from Scourge's barbed terminus straight into the ice that encased the boy.

The sudden change in temperature as the bolt impacted caused the ice to shatter violently, chunks of it flying off in different directions, freeing the young huntsman completely. After a few seconds, he cracked one eye, which he had shut tightly a moment before my strike with Scourge fell. I was standing over him, a pointedly over-satisfied look playing across my features.

"There are a lot of ways that coulda gone really, really badly," he rebuked, only half in jest.

"But it didn't." I reached out my hand, not unlike he had done for me earlier, and pulled him to his feet.

"Thanks." He smiled. "Got a name, Petals?"

"Summer. Summer Rose. Howabout you, Ice-cube?"

"Nice. And it's Qrow. Branwen." Qrow knelt, scooped up my bag from where it had come to rest after I'd tripped, and handed it to me. I took it with a nod. Unexpectedly, however, the shoulder-strap buckle snapped and gave out, which caused my pack to fall and spill my stuff all over the ground.

"Typical. First day of school and I've already tripped, made a whole second-year team's worth of enemies, got a hole in my cloak, and now this." Qrow knelt to help me pick up my stuff. I half expected my magazines to burst into flames at the touch of my fingers with my luck thus far.

"Could've been worse. Could've been stuck to the ground in some girl's frozen chewing gum."

"Hm. Well, as my dad likes to say: you bought the ticket, you had to ride the ride." I smiled as Qrow scooped up the last of my things and dropped them into my pack. I tried to fix the buckle, but to no avail, so I resorted to cradling the bag awkwardly under my arm as we continued on towards the auditorium.

"Well, your Dad's got some weird sayings. What's that even supposed to mean?"

"We were good. You helped me up, and we coulda just walked on and just let Bubble-Girl talk her smack till her teeth rotted from all the gum she chews. But you had to get in her face. I mean, it was heroic, don't get me wrong, but you squared up within arms-length of four more experienced fighters and got your butt handed to you."

"I did not get my butt handed to me! And where I come from, someone talks down to you like that, you settle it. One way or the other."

"Yeah well, you sure settled it." I shot him a wry look.

Qrow held up a hand and rolled his eyes, sighing as if exhausted. "Please. I get enough of that from my sister. That's half the reason I helped you y'know, so I'd get a break from her sarcasm."

"I think I saw her earlier. She the girl with the nodachi? The one with the rotary chamber that looked like it was full of interchangeable blades, not the one with the shotgun built into the hilt."

"Noticed all that, huh? Yeah, that's her. Raven."

"Ohhh, Raven and Qr—"

"Oh my g— Every single time! Yeah, yeah, we're both named after birds."

I couldn't help but snicker. "Kinda my same reaction when someone tells me I'm named after a white rose. Like, 'Really? Imagine that, I actually have a reason for wearing a _white cloak_ that sheds _white rose petals_ whenever I activate my semblance.'"

"Exactly! Finally, someone else out there actually _gets it_." We both laughed at that, and continued walking for a few silent moments. I didn't really know what else to say. This was already one of the longest conversations I'd ever had with someone who wasn't my Dad. Qrow broke the quiet just as it started to get awkward, thankfully. "So, I take it you've got a thing for high tech weapons, huh? Saw those weapon catalogues in your bag, and yours during the fight. Pretty flashy stuff."

"Oh, yeah, kinda… Okay yeah. I'm a bit of a weapon geek. Figured I might as well be if I'm gonna kill monsters for a living, right?"

"Nah, nah I didn't say it was weird or anything, I just kinda noticed. The whip looked like some kinda Atlas tech."

"Well, yeah, it sorta is, actually. I grew up all over, built it when I was going to combat school up in Mantle. My dad knew some pretty well-connected Atlas Specialist Corps types with some kind of tech clearance, and he got me the specs for the braid. Supposed to be for high-speed, super-durable land-based comms in the event the CCTS were to ever go down, so strong even Grimm couldn't break it, but with a little modification I figured out how to make it channel ionized xenon and neon plasma instead of AC comm waveforms, and how to catalyze that plasma with dust powder to give it elemental effects.

"See, when you split all the excess anions and cations from the ionization process through the plasmoid resonance chamber, you create a weak magnetic field that runs the length of the whip and draws dust up, through the catalyzer and into each contact, where it is ionized and transferred to my target in an attack, with more anions and cations being created in the process, and feeding the cycle even more. Freeze dust was tricky, but I eventually figured out how to make it still work even if the ion stream is too hot to directly transfer ice through contact with the braid itself. What I can do is…" I looked over at Qrow and suddenly noticed the glazed look in his eyes. "You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?"

"Hm? Oh, ah, yeah. A word, here and there."

I smiled nervously. "Ahh sorry. You got me going on it and I just got _really_ carried away."

"Heh. It's fine. Pretty cool you figured all that out yourself. They got names?"

"Who? Oh, my weapons! Yeah. The plasma-whip is Scourge, and the short sword is Thorn." I paused for a second. "What about you? I'm actually glad you brought it up. Kinda been dying to ask about that sword on your magplate. All mechanical, no fancy electronics or dust, extendable blade and… I'm guessing shotguns?"

He drew his collapsed sword, pulling a multi-setting trigger one notch back to extend it from carry to full-size. "Hm, you really do have an eye for weapons. I… Well, you actually kinda said everything there is to say about it, actually. Except…" I saw a mischievous look flash in Qrow's eye. "…This." He pulled the trigger back the rest of the way. I heard a mechanical whirring noise, saw the exposed gears spinning in the top of the guard. My eyes might've watered a little bit when I saw what happened next.

The sword blade rotated to a 90-degree offset from the hilt, sharpened edge out, its five segments splitting and extending while remaining connected on previously hidden interior mechanics. In turn, each of those segments now angled off so that their unsharpened rear edges came into contact, about ten degrees each, to give the blade a wicked curve. A curve, almost like… The grip of his weapon extended, five equal-length sections that all telescoped out in either direction from where Qrow gripped it. A scythe. Dark red blade segments exposed themselves last, flashing out from the interior storage section of the weapon.

If my eyes could've turned into little cartoon hearts like something out of an X-Ray and Vav comic right then, they would have. "Woahhhh," was all I could manage at first. "That's… A scythe! That's like… Like the Grimm Reaper!"

"Exactly! Just like her!" Qrow nodded enthusiastically. "Grew up hearing stories about her. She's the best huntress in the world… I'm gonna be even better than she is one day."

"Heh. Yeah right. I've heard stories of her killing hundreds of grimm by herself. Whole packs just… Gone." I said, grinning. "My dad says he's met her before. On one of his adventures. Said she's as beautiful as she is dangerous."

"No way, really? Your dad must be a big-deal huntsman too."

I stopped, remembering then all the times my dad had used fake names growing up. Though I'd never known why, I knew he didn't want people to know who he was. Part of me knew I shouldn't say anything further about him, so I changed the subject. "So… Not a speck of dust powering the gears? Nothing?"

"Nope. Summer Rose, Curse. Curse," he turned to the scythe as if introducing it to me, "Summer Rose."

"Curse. That's… man. I bet It'd be super easy to maintain out in the field."

"Yeah, kinda a big part of the reason I didn't try and get really fancy with the design. That and, well, my family doesn't exactly have connections to the world's most advanced military's skunkworks division."

"Where are you and your sis from?"

"Anima. Here and there. We moved around a lot as kids too. Kinda have to, being raised outside the kingdom like we were."

"You're from one of those nomadic tribes? Met some of them once. My Dad and I stayed with them for a few months once after he saved them from a Grimm attack. I was really young at the time… Like, four or something. That's not an easy life. What made you two come to Beacon?"

"It's really not. Seems like I've been fighting since I could stand. And, I guess you can say my clan needed a… a specialist. I mean, just about everyone can put up a fight, but they sent us to Beacon for a little extra training."

We were approaching our destination. The doors were open, and I could see the mass of students filling the floor within the auditorium. "Well, I'm sure they'll be glad to have you two when you get back. Aren't you worried about them in the meantime?"

"Heh. Believe me. They can take care of themselves." A few steps further towards the doors, and Qrow called out. "Raven! Hey, Raven. C'mere." The girl I now knew to be Qrow's sister had been leaning against the frame of the door, watching the students within disinterestedly. At Qrow's call, she took a few slow steps our direction, her expression morphing from jaded to, well, slightly less jaded as she approached. "Want you to meet someone, Sis."

"Well, if it isn't the invisible girl." Raven spoke slowly, almost methodically. She seemed… Ah, what would be a good word for her… Closed. Yes, closed. Disconnected. Not hostile or anything, just completely neutral.

"Hi Raven! I'm Summer Rose." I held out my hand, which Raven took and shook firmly after an awkward moment.

"So," Raven spoke after looking me up and down, "kinda sucks I didn't get to actually see much of your fight. Just looked like a couple of idiots tripping over themselves trying to find the one brain cell they share. Shame the headmaster showed up when he did, it was finally starting to get good. I wish he'd let it go on. I feel like that's the most interesting thing that's gonna happen today."

"Well, it is only the first day. I don't know that first-years spar with anyone except their own class until the Vytal Festival Tournament, but I'm hoping I get a chance for a rematch with team CNDY eventually."

"I hope so too. Fights where there's bad blood involved are usually the best. Must be nice, being able to hide behind your semblance like that."

Qrow grumbled, "Raven, be nice."

"Oh relax, I meant nothing by it. It just seems like an unfair advantage."

"It's fine, no offense or anything. It's not a perfect defense. You can still hear me. And Grimm don't see in the visible spectrum, they see aural energies, like emotions. So, it doesn't help me against them either. Just people, which, if you believe my dad, can be a much bigger threat."

"Your dad sounds like a smart guy," Raven observed casually.

"He is, just paranoid, I think. Like I was telling him, actually," I tilted my head in Qrow's direction, "We moved around a lot. Kinda like you guys, with your nomadic clan back in Anima. Dad always said that it was to keep us safe."

"Well, like our father used to tell us, cautious people tend to live the longest." She shot a pointed look at Qrow, and I couldn't help but think she meant that comment for him.

Raven's brother returned her look with a flat, recalcitrant stare. "Yeah, that's exactly what he used to say. And look where that got him. We're not having this conversation again, Raven."

I was getting the sense that there was some latent hostility between the pair of them regarding the subject. "I can leave, I guess, if you two got some er—brother-sister stuff—that you need to handle. I don't wanna intrude."

"Nah, you can stay right here, Petals. Don't even worry about it. Raven, later."

"Whatever you say, baby brother."

"We're twins, stupid. Just b'cause I came out second doesn't mean you get to play 'big sis'."

"Students." I had been paying attention to Qrow and Raven's little argument, so the sudden voice from the speakers within the auditorium caught me off-guard. I hadn't even noticed Professor Ozpin calmly take the stage. He stood, surveying the crowd for a moment, before continuing. "Before I begin I would like to be the first to formally welcome you to Beacon Academy. It is within these classrooms, and upon these grounds, that the next generation of Humanity's protectors are forged, shaped into the most capable, intelligent, and lethal warriors in the world.

"That is what the recruiting posters say, anyway. Let me re-phrase those sentiments for you, if I may. I believe, as my predecessor Professor Zoroaster did before me, that combat, trial, and hardship are the flames that forge the strongest blades. The path you have chosen will not be an easy one, as you will all find out tomorrow. Humanity can only afford the best to be its guardians in this world, to continue to ensure the continuation of the peace and security we have known since the end of the Great War.

"Thus, as I stand here looking out upon this group before me, upon all of you, I am filled with hope. Hope that I will, in four years, greet you as 'Huntsman' or 'Huntress' atop the monument you saw on your way in. That hope, however, is leavened by knowledge. The knowledge that many of you will not make it to that day. Bear that in mind, tomorrow, as well as the rest of your time here as a student at Beacon, and remember to always do your very, very best. No less will be accepted by my instructors." With that, the headmaster turned and strode away, in no way reliant on the cane he kept with him.

As Professor Ozpin stepped away, another individual stepped forward to the mic. After the man cleared his throat for just a little longer than one would think necessary, he spoke. "Greetings, students. I am Doctor Hargrave, the Dean of Students for this academy." The man was tall and rather big about the middle. It wasn't that he was particularly fat, though. You could tell that at one time, the man before us had been very, very powerfully built, but age had been working against his physique for some time now. His barrel-chest heaved as he spoke, projecting his deep, rumbling voice.

Hargrave continued, "I take great pleasure in my responsibility to see you students through your four years here, and in my responsibilities as the direct line between you…" he made a point of indicating at the class of first years before him and taking another long, deep breath before resuming, "…And Professor Ozpin. I have an open-door policy, and will have all of you in my classroom, both semesters, for Combat Application Lab I and II. I expect to see each and every one of you drop by and introduce yourselves."

"Combat Application Lab?" Qrow whispered, confused.

"Sparring." Raven and I both answered simultaneously.

"Ah." Qrow's arms crossed as his eyes settled back on the burly doctor on stage.

"My professors and I make it a point to remain approachable, as we have real-world experience many of you lack and are all more than willing to share that knowledge with you. Now. None of you came here to listen to old huntsmen drone on stage about honor codes and disciplined study habits while you are enrolled here. I'll spare you, for now. However, your scrolls have all, as of right now," Hargrave pressed the 'send' button on his own device in full view of the audience before continuing, "been sent a copy of the Beacon Core Values and Academic Expectations. There will be no excuses for not being familiar with the information contained within in those documents, students."

My scroll buzzed in my pocket as I received the message. I pulled it out, noting the sender's name to be listed as 'Hargrave, Symon J'.

"Now, the moment you stepped off the transports back at our landing pad, you ceased to be a rabble of civilians with minor developing martial capabilities. When your feet touched our grounds, you became students. Initiates. To call you 'First-Years' yet may even be a little pre-emptive, depending on the events of tomorrow. For the remainder of today, however, you are free to roam the campus, acquaint yourself with your peers, and utilize the on-campus dust dispensary and armory to ensure your weapons are up to your own standard. The cafeteria begins serving supper at five P.M., and you are all encouraged to come meet some of the upperclassmen who will help mentor you through the years ahead. You will sleep in the ballroom tonight, dormitories will be allotted upon your return from tomorrow's mission and the assignment of teams."

With that, Doctor Hargrave departed the stage. A general murmur arose from around the room as students made plans on how they'd spend the rest of the day. Qrow turned to me and Raven. "I'm gonna go find some trouble to get into. You two in?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Raven smiled. I had begun to wonder if she knew how.

"What kind of 'trouble'?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Qrow grinned mischievously. "If you're curious, may as well tag along and find out."

"Tempting. Really," I replied flatly. "But, I'm actually gonna go check out the armory. Make sure everything's working right after that fight on the way in. I'll catch up with you two later."

"You sure?" Qrow asked.

"Yeah. Already caught the headmaster's attention once today. Besides, Hargrave really made a point of warning us about tomorrow. Probably a good idea for all of us to make sure we're ready, for whatever it is they're gonna put us through."

"Hm. Fair enough, I guess. No way it's gonna be anything Raven and I can't handle, but whatever floats your boat. See you later, then."

I waved back as I re-gripped my broken pack and headed off, realizing only then that I had absolutely no idea where the armory was.


	3. Chapter 3: You have Silver Eyes

**Chapter Three: You have Silver-Eyes**

The early fall air blew a cool breeze through the archways and colonnades as I wandered my way about, searching for the armory. There were no directories of any sort on campus, and after my last encounter with upperclassmen, I was none too eager to ask one for directions. Teams of four were all around me, hanging out, talking about their summer breaks, about classes they had together this term, or simply reminiscing about the last year. Most paid me no mind at all, but every now and then a glance or two would come my way that I did my best not to return. At one point, I turned a corner and nearly bumped into two fourth years that were obviously, ah… Involved, with each other. I mean, I get it. Life for a huntsman or huntress can be short and violent, but come on. Make-out sessions on the quad? Get a room or something.

Finally, I admitted to myself that I had become totally lost. Nothing looked familiar. A bronze statue stood nearby, at the center of a courtyard between dormitories, beneath the branches of an enormous old live oak tree. Aside from this part of the campus feeling quite a bit older than some of the other areas I'd been to, the stonework a little more weathered and the gnarled branches of the tree nearly brushing against the dorms, I didn't think anything of it at first. Just another statue in just another courtyard. I looked around, no particular direction seeming like a better way to go than any other. Frustrated, I walked over to one of the benches built into the four-sided marble base of the statue and sat, failing to notice the calm figure who already occupied the adjacent side of the monument facing the thick trunk of the old tree.

"I take it you prefer solitude, as I do, young Miss Rose?" The man asked, and I jumped. I was startled, yes, but mostly I jumped because the even, measured tone of the voice was one I'd already heard twice today. Professor Ozpin stood and faced me, smiling kindheartedly as I composed myself.

"Oh, I'm ah, I'm actually just completely lost, Sir. Looking for the armory. Gotta go um… check my gear, y'know? I uh… I just didn't see you there."

The professor chuckled. "So, am I to take that to mean you would have avoided me had you known I was here?"

"Oh, no! I just ah, no."

"Well, that is a relief." Ozpin took a sip of cocoa from a mug he held in the opposite hand from his cane. I could smell the rich notes of dark chocolate, with maybe a hint of hazelnut on the breeze. "In point of fact, I had hoped we would get an opportunity to speak face to face, and as luck would have it, here you are. Please, have a seat, Miss Rose."

"Uhh… Sure. I mean ah, yes sir." I sat down next to the Headmaster nervously, utterly sure I was in some kind of trouble already.

He smiled kindheartedly, though that did little to calm my nerves as once again, his piercing gaze studied my face. "Miss Summer Rose. You have Silver-Eyes."

I froze. Could that have been an off-handed remark? A brief look at the headmaster's expression told me the answer. He knew. "Yes, Sir," was all I could manage. My father had always made it clear that our lineage, our powers, were above all else to be our most closely guarded secret. I'd never met anyone who had ever recognized the only outward telltale trait, and had begun think I never would… So how did he know?

As if sensing my racing thoughts and now keenly-focused suspicion, the Professor held up his hand. "You have no enemies, here, Miss Rose. Except perhaps Miss Clarissa Sweete and the rest of team CNDY, and I can promise you that they are nowhere nearby."

I looked quickly around for passerby, and seeing none I turned back to Professor Ozpin. Slowly, I spoke. "Sorry, Sir… It's just that, well, I've never met someone who knew what I am. What these—" I indicated my eyes, "—mean."

"It's certainly a rarity these days. You are one of the only two I know of. Now, given that you obviously are aware of your inborn abilities, I now must ask—purely out of curiosity, of course—if you have been able to tap into them."

"I… No. No, Sir. I've never been able to. My father says it will come with time, but I don't know."

Ozpin stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Hm. Well, from what I understand the Light your kind is born with can only manifest itself when its wielder truly needs it. You should count yourself lucky that you have not, as yet, found yourself in such a situation… But you should also know, that will not remain the case for long during your time at this academy and beyond. Your kind are inexorably drawn to the defense of the helpless. Your time will come, of that I am sure." He chuckled warmly again before adding, "I ask merely because I wanted to know if _all_ of the Grimm in the Emerald Forest are going to die tomorrow, or only _most_ of them."

"I guess that depends on how many there are," I replied, a bit of nervous anticipation coming through in my voice. The prospect of facing a few grimm tomorrow wasn't really what was bothering me, though. Nothing I hadn't done before, anyway. It was the Headmaster. His knowing look and apparent familiarity with the nature of my abilities. After another quiet moment, I spoke. "With all due respect, uh, Sir, but how do you know so much about the Silver-Eyes? My father always said that our kind had faded beyond memory by this point."

"The term 'Silver-Eyed Warrior' may have faded, yes. But your kind have been leaving their mark on this world for thousands of years, right up to the very recent past." Ozpin stood, nodding to me to indicate that I should follow. We rounded the base of the pedestal upon which we'd been sitting, around to the front of the memorial. "Do you know who this is?"

I looked up at the statue, studying it in detail for the first time. The man was clad in fine armor, the symbol of Vale embossed on each heavy pauldron. Flowing hair cascaded down his wide, square shoulders and back. From his helmetless head, the statue's sightless eyes seemed to bore into mine from deep-set sockets and chiseled features no matter which way I shifted. In his right hand, he held a scepter, like something a king would use as a mark of office. His left hand reached out, holding out his crown as if offering it to whomever might take it. His scabbard was empty, and the magnificent sword to which it belonged was stabbed into the ground beside him. I knew exactly who it was. My eyes turned to the bronze placard beneath the statue's feet, and my heart stirred a little bit as I read the titles ascribed to the famous Silver-Eyed Warrior memorialized before us.

 **Adin Zoroaster**

 **Fourth of his name, The Warrior King, The Last Monarch of Vale,**

 **Founder and First Headmaster of Beacon Academy.**

Beneath King Zoroaster's name and titles, a famous quote of his was etched into the stone. I remember reading it before in a book about the Great War, said to have been delivered by him just before he charged with his armies into the battle of the Reddened Sands in the Vacuo campaign.

" _ **Remember this always: The true measure of a warrior is not the strength of your sword-arm, nor your skill in battle, nor what you have achieved through cunning use of either. Rather, it is the unbridled hope that fills your chest with every beat of your heart, even in these, our darkest of days. My heart beats for our world, for peace, my friends. Does yours?"**_

Noting my recognition, Ozpin smiled. "Not many people knew my predecessor did in fact have the same gift you possess. He was the last in a long line of Silver-Eyes, his death marking the end of one of the final two remaining bloodlines of your kind. You father knew. As I recall, he was the one who actually told me."

That last casual remark caused my eyes to snap back to Ozpin's. "He… What? You know my father?"

Ozpin took another sip of cocoa. "You know, you and I have met before. When you were an infant. I was still a young huntsman at the time, paying a visit to two former teammates of mine—more a brother and sister to me, honestly—who had started a family and were living happily in a small village on the western coast of Sanas. Your father and mother."

"Teammates… My parents?" I was too shocked to form any kind of real coherent sentence with the question, but the Headmaster nodded and smiled.

"We were indeed. Your father is one of the best fighters I've ever seen, and that's without tapping his Light. I first learned about your kind during a particularly stressful mid-term mission, when your father experienced his powers for the first time. Everyone who saw what happened assumed it was some form of semblance. He slew every grimm that threatened our group and the small town we were defending, and promptly passed out for several days afterward. When he finally awoke, he told our team the true nature of what had happened."

"He told me that story. I don't remember him mentioning you, though."

"That doesn't necessarily surprise me." The headmaster laughed a little. "He did all the work. The best I could do was act like I was in charge, make sure everyone was okay after the fact, and call for the evac when he didn't wake up right away."

"Well, you would think he would've said something about the fact that an old friend of his is now the headmaster of the academy I'd be going to, at least." I realized what I had said sounded very confrontational, but Ozpin didn't bat an eye.

"Hm. Perhaps, but it has been quite a while. I haven't seen or spoken with your father in a little under seventeen years. The last I saw Cedric was when I came and visited him after… well, after your mother passed."

If I had had cat ears, they would have perked straight up. "Do you know what happened to her?" I blurted the question, the answer to which I had never been told.

"Your father… Still hasn't told you? That was… Unexpected. I do know what happened to your mother. But Miss Rose, I know your father would not have kept that information from you without a very, very good reason. I have no doubt he will tell you when the time is right."

I folded my arms sullenly. I hadn't actually expected that he would tell me, but that didn't make the fact that he didn't any less disappointing. The headmaster seemed to sense my irritation, and continued speaking, probably in an effort to change the subject. "I had been tapped to become Headmaster by that time, with Doctor Hargrave retiring to his current position as Dean of Students. I used my station to offer your father a position as a professor here at Beacon, but he refused. That was the last time I saw him. I tried to stay in contact in the months that followed those events, but my calls never went through, and every trip I made in an effort to track you two down was a dead end. After a little while it became evident that he was deliberately avoiding direct contact with me, and I resigned myself to the knowledge that I'd never see my old friend again.

"However, when an application to this academy bearing the same name Cedric and Leila had given their silver-eyed little daughter that I'd met nearly seventeen years ago crossed my desk, I felt sure that finally, there was much more than coincidence. A cooperative effort between myself and the leader of the White Fang Progressive Movement to ensure no appearance-related bias in the selection of candidates at this academy meant that there were no pictures of you in your file, thus I had no more than a quiet hope in the back of my mind that you were who I thought. It was not until today that confirmation of my feelings was delivered, when I first laid eyes on you following your disagreement with team CNDY. I saw that same glint, that spark, burning in your eyes like it was ready to ignite into silver flame. It always was most prevalent in your father's eyes after a good fight too." He paused, eyes carefully searching my face for a moment before quietly adding, "And you really do look exactly like Leila."

"That's one of the only things I ever could get my dad to tell me about her. He used to say, if I ever wanted to see my mother, just to look in the mirror. Can't say it helps much. She's still gone."

"I'm sure she's watching you, right now. And, I'm sure she's very, very proud of the young woman you've become."

I didn't say anything for a moment. I wasn't quite sure how to process the fact that a total stranger knew as much about my family as he did. He certainly knew more about my mother, and probably more about my father too. On top of that, apparently, this stranger also was intimately familiar with my family's greatest secret. Finally, I replied. "Yeah, well, that'd actually be better coming from her, Professor."

The headmaster sighed. "I know it would, Miss Rose. Believe me, I do. I would break the rules of time and space to bring her back, if I could. Now, I had intended to come down here for a few minutes of quiet before returning to preparations for tomorrow's initiation mission. While I am glad it turned out to be an opportunity to speak with you, I'm afraid I am out of time. Quite ironic, considering my office is literally built inside the clock tower. So, I will leave you with this." Professor Ozpin looked me straight in my eyes before he turned to leave. "Your father no doubt taught you to be suspicious of anyone and everyone you meet, and for good reason. I want you to know, however, that I am the furthest thing from an enemy you will ever have at this academy, and should you ever desire to talk to me, I will make time to do so."

I nodded in response, before quietly murmuring, "Thank you, Sir."

Ozpin began to walk away. Looking back over his shoulder with a grin and indicating an arched thoroughfare on the opposite side of the courtyard from where I'd entered it with his cane, he added, "The armory is behind the campus library, just off the commons, by the way." With that, he disappeared around the near corner and back towards the CCT tower.

I stood there for a moment, my mind working hard in an effort to understand the peculiar stranger with whom I'd just spoken. His calm yet firm demeanor seemed to demand respect, yet his kind, emotive eyes betrayed a gentler, more sympathetic soul than his outward persona would suggest. I definitely didn't think he was lying about what he said either. Despite my misgivings about people in general, I decided right then that I trusted the man. Now however, thanks to him, I had new questions that only one person could answer.

I pulled out my scroll, sitting back down next to the monument and pulling up my father's number in my contacts. I hit the send button, waiting a few moments while the tower allocated a signal channel. The receiving end buzzed once, twice, and then a third time before I heard my father's voice. "Hey honey! How's the first day at Beacon so far?"

"Hey, Dad. It's beautiful here, just like you said. I… uh… I already got in a fight though, so…"

"Really? Did you win?" He didn't sound concerned at all, I noted. More excited, actually. I mean, it was more or less what I expected; he hardly ever yelled at me for stuff like that. Just called it extra practice.

"Kinda. It was versus a whole team of second-years. Buncha jerks. I think I woulda won but it got broken up."

"That's my girl! Beating up the older kids already, huh? I like it! Who broke it up? Was it Hargrave? The old man never could stand a bit of fun."

"No. No, actually an old friend of yours stopped it. The Headmaster."

My dad was silent for a moment. "Oz? So, you met him?"

"Kinda. I didn't get to talk to him at first. He broke up the fight and left. After we got released from the welcome speech and I sorta ran into him around campus though. I thought for sure I was in trouble, but he just wanted to talk."

"What did he say?" Another hesitant pause from my dad's end. "How much did he tell you?"

"Well, he knows about silver eyes, firstly, which surprised me. I thought we were the only ones who knew anymore."

"No. It's rare to find someone who knows what we are, but that bit I already knew he'd know. I was the one who told him, after all. Even back then, I couldn't help but think he already knew. Wise beyond his years, that one. Anything… Anything else?"

"If you mean did he tell me about mom, no. He didn't know you hadn't told me, and when he found that out he only said you had a good reason for never telling me about her. But he'd known her too. You three were on a team together back when you went here. And he said he knew how she died."

My father sighed. "Yeah. We were. Team ORCL. Oz was always… special. Never had any formal training growing up, but became an unbelievably capable fighter in a very short time. Team leader right off the bat, best grades in the whole school all four years, top marks in sparring. Handed me my butt with that little cane of his more than a few times before I learned to master my Light. And he was a good friend. He was the first person I called, the first to show up after… After your mother died. I haven't seen him since."

"He said he looked for us. 'Tried to track us down' were his exact words. That's usually something you say about someone who's on the run." I stopped to think how I was going to phrase the next question, before resuming. "Dad. Were we running? All that time? My entire life? And are you ever going to tell me from whom, and why?"

The other end of the line was deafeningly silent for a few long seconds. "We… Listen, sweetie. This is a conversation we need to have in person. I should've known sending you to Beacon would bring up some of these old questions but… I trust Oz. He'll make sure you get better training than I have time to give you. And I know you'll be safe there while I… While I take care of some things."

"What kind of… Things?"

"That's nothing you need to concern yourself with. I'll make it out to Beacon when I come back, and we'll have that talk. Study hard, fight harder, little petal. I love you."

"Love you too." The line disconnected. Great. That conversation had done nothing but leave me with even more questions. I stood, wishing I knew the answers, hoping that dad would take care of whatever it was and get here as soon as possible. That was a conversation long overdue.

I stood and began to head out, casting one final look back at the statue of King Zoroaster. He seemed to watch me go as I passed the archway in the direction of the armory. Funny, for the briefest of moments the statue's stoic, tranquil, yet empathetic stare remined me of the headmaster. I shrugged off the passing thought as nothing more than a coincidence. The statue probably wasn't perfectly lifelike, anyway.

* * *

Just beyond the veil, Pyrrha and I walk alongside the visage of my past self. "This must be strange for you," Pyrrha says as she turns her head from the young me to… well, the slightly less young me.

I continue to watch myself for a moment more before facing her. "It is. I've looked back on my memories before, but never for long. Honestly, I think the weirdest part is seeing me at this age, knowing I'll never look very much older than that for the rest of eternity. I guess that's one good thing about dying young though… I'll never look like a forty-one-year-old."

Pyrrha gives a sort of half-laugh, half sigh, wistfully acknowledging the rather depressing truth of the statement. "There is that, I suppose. You passed at… what, twenty-five?"

"Twenty-eight."

Pyrrha cast her eyes down and sighed, "I wish I could've lived even that long."

"Don't start that. The wishing. Believe me, it does absolutely no good." I reach over and bring Pyrrha's chin up with my finger. My eyes meet hers, and I try to smile comfortingly. "I may be stuck on this side of the veil, but spending my time in the present with those I left behind means that my experiences, though not quite the same as if I had actually been there, are similar to what they would have been had I survived my encounter with Salem. I still got to watch my daughter grow up. I still got to watch Qrow teach her how to wield Crescent Rose. I saw her get put on a team at Beacon, watched her grow as a leader and warrior. Wishing I could change the past takes my focus away from the present. And I don't want to miss a thing."

Pyrrha nodded, seemingly accepting my advice, but the depressed look on her face did not lift. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment.

"For what?"

"I'm the reason you're missing out on the present right now."

"No! That's not what I meant! Don't you dare apologize." I stop walking, unable to hold back the mother instinct any longer, and throw my arms around Pyrrha, hugging her tightly as teenage me continued on down the pathway. The scene faded, my mind leaving the memory to focus entirely on the understandably broken young girl with whom I had so much in common. "What did I tell you? I swore to Ruby that I'd make your passing as easy as possible. It's only been hours since you sacrificed yourself. You know what I was doing hours after I ended up here? Helplessly watching Qrow try to drink himself to death because he blamed himself for what happened to me. Watching Tai's heart break as he told Yang and Ruby that mommy wasn't coming home. That's not going to be you, do you understand? If we have to watch all four years of my time at Beacon and every minute of the six years following that before you're ready to revisit the present, if that's what it takes, that's what I'll do. Because a promise is a promise."

Pyrrha shivered and sniffled, trying to hold back tears as she hugged me back. "I hope… I hope it won't take that long."

"You're one of the strongest people I've ever met, Pyrrha. I know it won't."

"Thank you, Summer," Pyrrha said after a while, finally smiling as she broke the embrace.

"Now. Let's go catch up to me." I can't help but grin at the paradoxical nature of that statement before concentrating once again on my memory to bring it back into focus. The image of my past-self reconstituted and Pyrrha and I fall back into stride by my side. My thoughts from that day begin to echo again in my mind here in the beyond, as if I were thinking them for the first time. The conversation with Ozpin minutes before was really getting to me, causing a mental maelstrom of questions and possible answers that varied wildly from reasonable to ridiculous and everywhere in between, bouncing around in my head with no signs of desisting.

"It sounds like you were pretty conflicted," Pyrrha said after a moment. "A lot must've been kept from you as a child, about your mother and all."

"Hmph. Yeah, a lot _was_ kept— _wait_." My eyes once again snapped to meet Pyrrha's. "You can hear my thoughts from then too?"

"I… I can," Pyrrha said slowly. "I'm, ah… I'm sorry. I assumed you knew that would happen."

"No… Well, I actually had no idea it would. I mean, I've never really had a companion here. You're the first person I've seen pass that I felt compelled to stay beside through the transition. As it is, I rarely go back to re-live my past anyway. Like I said, most of my time is spent watching the present here. So, no, I had no idea."

"Oh. Well, I guess… I suppose I can understand if it's too personal for you, now."

"What? I… well, you know, I actually don't really mind all that much, I suppose. Although, now that I do, I'm gonna go ahead and reserve the right to 'selectively remember' through some parts of my memories that might get a little ah… personal. I'm sure you understand." I grinned at the idea of that small caveat, like some kind of end-user license agreement for re-living my own memories.

Pyrrha returned the grin and even managed a slight chuckle before replying. "Totally understandable, Summer."

"Good." I smiled. "But yeah, I think 'conflicted' might not be a strong enough word."

"Do you know why your father held so much back from you?"

"I do. In all honesty, I think I did then, too. Every time I'd asked him about it, I'd see the pain it caused him to remember, and invariably he'd tell me: 'wait until you're older, little petal'. It just felt… off-limits, I suppose. But," I sighed, "we'll get to the actual conversation with him that explains... the whole story. Eventually."

Pyrrha shrugged. "Fair enough," she said as her focus settled back on the memory the veil continued to show us. "The armory is just ahead."

"Yeah, I actually felt really stupid when I finally found it."

"You passed it a few different times while you were getting lost."

"Mmmhm. Of course, in my defense, I was expecting there to at least be a sign on the door or… something." First-year me pushed through the double doors behind the library, exactly where Oz had said they'd be, and we followed me down a short flight of stairs into an expansive, high-ceilinged, semi-subterranean room. Pyrrha and I shared a look as my turbulent mental state quieted near-instantaneously. "You're going to see me in here a lot as we keep walking though these memories," I said offhandedly to Pyrrha as we reached the bottom of the stairwell. I watched myself toss my bag with its broken shoulder-strap to the nearest workbench of many that lined either wall of the room, and turn to take in what could only be described as a weapon-geek's wonderland. I'd never seen so many tools in my life.

Pyrrha smiles as teenage me set to work repairing the strap to my bag, the tumult gone from my mind and replaced by a steady, almost rhythmically-focused string of analytical thoughts about what I had set my hands to task completing. "It sounds like working with your hands like this is almost… therapeutic for you, I guess."

"Yeah, actually. I never really had a chance to make long-term friends before I came to Beacon, moving around like we did. Pretty hard to develop into anything but an introvert in circumstances like that. Sometimes, I just needed to get away from people and recharge, and this was where I'd come to do that. Of course, with time, I began to shake that off. I still kept my vices, same as everyone else on my team. I loved tinkering, building, modifying, all of that, Qrow and Raven loved to break the rules, and Tai was a fighter and an adrenaline junkie.

"Before long though, all I needed was a good work out or sparring session, or to just spend some time with my team, relax, hang out, that sort of thing. Not unlike Ruby. She and I were a lot alike during this stage of our lives. But she and her team grew to a point where they began to draw strength from one another, and from you all in JNPR too. According to Oz, that strength is the whole reason Beacon and the other academies use the team system, and is the basis that forms all the very best teams to ever graduate."

"That was my favorite part about my time at Beacon," Pyrrha said, a note of sadness in her voice at the mention of what Salem's evil had robbed her of. "The camaraderie, the support… I'm really looking forward to seeing STRQ develop that way. Qrow was certainly very different back then, wasn't he? And Raven… The second I saw her I thought I was looking at a black-haired version of Yang."

"Yeah." I sighed reflectively. "It was great, while it lasted." Though I didn't say it aloud, already knowing how my story would end certainly took quite a lot of the fun out of remembering. But I wasn't doing this for me. I swallowed the pain and smiled. "Speaking of Raven and Qrow, I'm gonna skip most of my afternoon here in the armory. Unless you want to watch me calibrate the output capacitor on Scourge's plasmoid chamber and remove the resulting over-voltage plasma scoring from each of the catalyzer contacts on the braid…"

"No, I, uh… I think that's just fine. We can skip that." Pyrrha and I shared a laugh and I closed my eyes, remembering forward to a few minutes before the moment I realized two of my future teammates were a pair of regular troublemakers.


	4. Chapter 4: Negative Friends

**Chapter Four: Negative Friends**

I'd been in the armory for hours, laboring carefully and diligently in an effort to restore Scourge to fighting form. I'd had to re-finish each individual bladed segment of the whip, abrading away the tough layer of plasma scoring that marred the emitter contacts with a tiny carbide-tipped detail grinder. I'd had time to recalibrate the complex internal electronics in the chassis to correct the root of the overvoltage problem, used the holodesk to design and fabricate a modification to shield the sensitive componentry and make it a bit more durable in the event Scourge ever took another hit like it had earlier, and I'd even managed to fix my bag. And in all that time, the questions and possibilities that had threatened to overwhelm my mind after my conversation with the headmaster could not have seemed further away.

I hooked my boots under a support bar beneath the workbench and leaned back on the barstool-like seat that was bolted into the ground, inspecting Scourge before letting out a satisfied sigh and returning my weapon to its magplate. I stretched my arms out and let my head fall back so that I could see the now upside-down clock hanging from the far wall. It was a few minutes after 2 p.m., and I hadn't eaten since before I boarded the transport. I suppose my ability to curb any and all concerns with a few hours at a workbench had a negative side effect too… I was starving.

As if to add an exclamation point to this realization, my stomach let out a long, burbling growl that galvanized me to stand and sling my recently-repaired messenger bag over my shoulder before heading back up and out onto the commons. I actually remembered where the cafeteria was, having passed the long, tall building in my search for the armory earlier. Setting off in that direction, I almost didn't notice when the Branwen twins appeared from the shadows behind the Library and moved to fall into step beside me.

"Hey, Petals! Wait up!" Qrow said as he and his sister approached.

I slowed, allowing the pair of them to close the gap, and turned to walk backwards as they trotted up. "What's up, Ice-Cube?"

"Nice," Raven grinned at the counter-nickname jab at her brother and nodded amicably.

"Hey Raven," I smiled back. She certainly seemed a little less… defensive, I guess, than she had earlier. I wonder if that was because she and her brother had found the trouble they were aiming to get into last I'd seen them. "What've you guys been doing all morning?"

The two of them shared a look before Qrow turned back with a shrug. "Meh. Not much. Exploring the campus. Kinda started to get boring, so we decided to come find you."

"Hm. Well, can't say I'm gonna be that entertaining, either. 'Bout to go get some food. You guys eat yet?"

"Nah, we haven't," Qrow replied. "I guess I could eat. Raven?"

"Sure," Raven said simply. Friendlier than before? Yes. More talkative? Apparently not.

"Kinda had something we wanted to ask you about, too. Might as well do it over some of this big-city food we've heard so much about," Qrow added to his sister's short reply.

Ask me? I perked up inquisitively. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

"We'll get there. Not really 'open-air conversation' material, if you know what I mean," Qrow said cryptically as he nodded his head towards a pair of professors standing nearby.

"I'm pretty sure you couldn't have made that sound any _more_ suspicious than you did, even if you tried," Raven chided her brother as the three of us continued on out of earshot of the two older huntsmen.

"I'm with her on that one," I added flatly. "I already have a bad feeling about… Well, whatever it is."

"Oh relax. It's a pretty good plan if I do say so mysel— _UHHFFF!"_

"I'm gonna stop you right there, little bro," Raven scolded after striking her brother hard in the gut with the pronounced elbow-bolsters on her segmented bracers. "It was _our_ plan."

Qrow straightened and continued after Raven and me, wincing as he did so from the pain of his contused abs and scowling at his sister. "Ugghh… _Fine._ Whatever. It was our plan. But," he added, looking back at me, "you're a big part of it.".

"Okay, now I've really got a bad feeling about your little 'plan'."

Qrow waved dismissively. "You worry too much, Petals."

"You should try it sometime. Might save you from ending up stuck in ice and leaving me to do all the fighting next time." I fired back. "And quit calling me 'Petals'."

"Oh, come on. What about trip-hazard?"

"Un-original. Try again."

"Flower-child?"

"No."

"Short-stack?"

"Do you have a death wish? Initiation's tomorrow. I could totally make it look like you got eaten by a grimm."

"You're no fun."

"No, you're just bad at coming up with nicknames."

Rolling his eyes, Qrow conceded. "Fine. Guess we're sticking with Summer."

"Thank you," I nodded. We had almost reached the cafeteria by now. The smells of the day's extensive menu wafted from the kitchen chimneys at the back of the long, rectangular building, filling our nostrils with more amazing scents than we could reasonably distinguish from one another. I looked over, and I could've sworn Qrow's eyes were watering. I couldn't say I blamed him, either. Nomadic tribes, like the one in which Qrow had said that he and Raven had been raised in and the one with which my father and I had stayed when I was little, hunted and gathered for almost all of their food. Variety beyond what the wilds could provide was rare, unless the clan stopped their migration to trade with other villages they passed. No matter what spices or herbs you had on-hand to season your meals with, everything always tasted like lean game.

We pushed through the double doors, into the massive open interior of the cafeteria. The room was filled with natural light that streamed in from incredibly tall, narrow windows that nearly reached all the way from the stone floor up to the vaulted ceiling. The peak lunch rush had died down, but the voices and laughter of students from every grade still grouped at different tables saturated the air with the constant ambient hum of conversation. A first-year girl standing nearby caught my eye. Well, her weapon did, slung in a massive half-sheath across her back. It must've been the biggest great sword I'd ever seen, with an intriguing hollow space above the quillion block and a groove running down the spine of the blade that indicated its ability to separate down its own long axis.

Qrow jarred my attention away from the girl after a moment, reaching back and tapping me on the shoulder excitedly whilst staring with rapt attention at the holomenu at the front of the line. "What?" I asked, my moderate irritation at his insistent interruption quickly becoming amusement as I watched him clumsily explore the floating images of the available meals. The menu had everything, from delicious-looking sushi to burgers, from pulled pork barbeque to quesadillas, even that morning's fresh-caught seafood delivered from the downtown market. Even I found myself surprised by the available variety, but Qrow appeared utterly dumfounded.

"I've never even heard of half of this stuff," Qrow admitted after a moment more of confusedly scrolling through several pages of options.

I laughed. "Just pick something. You can't not like it if you've never tried it, right?"

Qrow shrugged. "Fair enough." He put one hand over his eyes and blindly picked an option with the other. The console flashed to the payment screen, and Qrow balked at the price. "Thirteen lien? I don't think I've even got a ten-card in my wallet!"

"Tap your scroll on the terminal. You've got a student account. All our meals are paid for, the option to pay is just for guests."

"What, really?" Qrow confusedly retrieved his scroll and touched it to the payment pad where one would usually scan a lien. The screen blinked once, and a flashing green check mark next to Qrow's student ID number and name appeared on the holoscreen. "Whaaaa…" Qrow said, his confusion and skepticism gone. In its place, wonderment reminiscent of a kid in a candy store flushed across his features as a tray laden with his meal was delivered via a conveyor system from the kitchens behind the rear wall of the room.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Raven chided. "You act like you've never even seen food before."

"Have you ever seen anything like this? I don't even know what it is, but it looks amazing."

"That," I laughed, "is a pizza." The personal pie looked quite good actually, flash-cooked to perfection in seconds and delivered steaming hot, but I'd had my eye on that sushi roll since I'd first spied it on the menu. Raven scrolled disinterestedly through the options after me before settling for a simple house salad, and the three of us exited the line to take a seat in the main dining area. I was about to go sit near the girl I'd seen earlier, who was alone at the end table of the nearest row and who I secretly wanted to interrogate about the mechanics of her weapon, but Qrow and Raven nudged me over to an empty, secluded corner and sat down opposite me.

Qrow tucked noisily and ravenously into the journey of self-discovery that was his pizza, Raven picked a few bites from her salad, and I readied my chopsticks. None of us said a word and I was starving, so I wasted no time in tucking into my "Huntsman's roll". Between bites, however, I became acutely aware that Raven was observing me. It was casual, low-key, even. But just about every time I looked her way our eyes met, and she would always hold that contact for a bit longer than one would think entirely necessary. It was seriously almost like she was trying to learn everything there was to know about me without actually asking.

Finally, I decided to break the awkward silence and cycle of uncomfortable eye contact with Raven. "So, what is it that you two so desperately need my help with, huh?"

Qrow was already on the last quarter-slice of his pizza. Between bites, he asked, "What do you know about initiation tomorrow?"

"Not much, really. My dad went here, and told me once that that is one thing they try to keep a secret as much as possible until the day of. Keeps us guessing, I guess. No one knows what the actual mission will be, where it'll be, anything, until it happens."

"And you're cool with that?" Qrow asked.

I thought for a moment, wondering where he was going with this line of conversation. "Yeah, I guess so. Something my dad taught me was that a true huntsman is ready for every situation."

"You seem to rely on your Dad's advice quite a bit," Raven pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I never knew my mom."

Raven shrugged ever so slightly. "Hmph. Fair enough. I only point it out because I wonder how willing you are to think for yourself."

The passive aggression was clear in the comment, but I let it go. "What kind of thinking for myself are we talking about, here?"

"We're talking about helping us out on a little… venture." Qrow had by this point already completely wolfed down his pizza, and was now fully invested in the conversation. "The kind that might make you have to do something your dad might not encourage."

"I knew I had a bad feeling about this."

"What did I say…" Raven said in an I-told-you-so sort of way to her brother.

"Hey, she hasn't said no yet, sis," Qrow interrupted.

"I still don't know what it is you two want me to say yes to!" I interjected, beginning to get frustrated at their apparent insistence in remaining utterly cryptic.

"You saw Hargrave at the welcome speech? He had a scroll tablet."

"Yeah I saw it. And it's relevant… how?"

"He's the Dean of Students. There's no way that tablet doesn't have some kind of rundown on initiation tomorrow. Objectives, maps, grimm concentrations, all of that."

The realization of my role in this 'plan' dawned on me a moment before Qrow finished his last sentence. "You want me to steal Professor Hargrave's tablet? A former headmaster of Beacon? An experienced huntsman with the power to expel us with a stroke of a stylus?"

"Pretty much," Raven nodded.

I looked at Qrow, who smiled like what he'd just said wasn't the stupidest idea ever put into words. "You're both nuts," I said simply.

"There it is. Satisfied?" Raven gloated to her brother.

"She. Still. Didn't. Say. No," Qrow emphatically stressed every word, but I raised my finger to stop him.

"Yeah, sorry. That's definitely a no. Did you really think you'd get away with something like that?"

"We've gotten away with plenty already," Qrow proudly huffed. "Besides, it's not like we'd keep it. It'd disappear just long enough for us to copy the right files, and then 'poof', right back where he left it. You saw how old he is. He'd never even notice."

"What do you mean, 'plenty already'?"

"That," Raven interjected before her brother could respond, "Isn't important."

"What is important is that we need you, Summer," Qrow insisted. "This could give us a leg up on initiation, tomorrow. We'd look like the best first year students to ever hit this school!"

"But we wouldn't really _be_ the best, don't you get that? If we cheat our way to an easy initiation, we're not really any better than anyone else. Something my dad taught me—"

"Here we go," Raven interrupted exasperatedly, rolling her eyes and sighing as she spoke.

"What? Oh, excuse me," I said, returning Raven's recalcitrance with sarcasm of my own. "I'm sorry my dad is one of the best huntsmen to ever live! I'm sorry that I choose to listen to the lessons he taught me about being a huntress, because I actually want to be just like him someday!"

"Well. Aren't we just daddy's little angel, huh?" Raven's eyes snapped to mine, blazing in the first real emotion I'd seen her show yet… anger. "You know what lessons our father taught us? Rules are for suckers. In the wilds, you do what you can to survive, or you die. You don't stick your neck out for others, you don't hold to any kind of honor code when the blades and bullets start flying, and you take every advantage you can, fair or not. And he didn't teach us that with his life, his perfect _example_ ," Raven spat. "He taught us that when he _died._ "

"Look, I'm sorry that happened to you, but then why are you trying to become a huntress!? That's all pretty much in the job description!"

"That's probably the most naïve thing I've ever heard," Raven scoffed. "Out there, huntsmen aren't any better than anyone else, they just act like they are. Most are no more than mercenaries. When it comes down to it, I bet your daddy isn't any different."

"That's not true. You don't know my dad. You don't know me."

"But I do know people. Pretty easy to tell with some, who's gonna cut and run when the real fighting begins, who's gonna look after number one. Not that I'd blame anyone for living to fight another day, because in the end that's always, always gonna be a better option than dying for a bunch of strangers who never learned to fend for themselves. The dangerous ones are the ones who convince themselves that they're somehow better than everyone else. Get everyone else believing it, too. And when the fighting starts they'll leave the people who came to trust them for their words to die and save their own skin every time. Every. _Single._ Time."

"That's not me. That's not what it means to be a Rose. We're…"

"Better?" Raven venomously finished my sentence.

"That's not what I was going to say."

"You didn't have to." Raven stood, her contemptuous scowl making it clear she was done with our discussion. "You're just another arrogant, self-righteous little coward in the making. Come on, Qrow. I told you we didn't need _Miss Rose._ "

"Raven, waitaminute," Qrow pleaded.

"Just go, Qrow," I growled. It was Raven I was really mad at, but her last words to Qrow made it pretty clear that her brother was the one who'd pushed to have me included in the twin's scheme in the first place. The boy looked at me for a moment, a sort of regret and sad disappointment clear in his eyes, before standing.

"Fine. I guess we'll see you around, Summer."

"Take care of yourselves, tomorrow," I wished them bitterly. "Seems that's what you two are good at."

"Damn right it is," I heard Raven mumble as she stalked away with Qrow right behind.

I watched them leave, seething angrily at them, at myself, everything, really. This morning, I thought I'd made two friends, but it seemed now my misgivings about people were being proven right, and here I was right back at square one. I picked at the last few bites of my sushi which, though delicious, I no longer had an appetite for, and stood to leave. A few students still lingered in the cafeteria, but not many. The girl who'd caught my eye earlier was seated alone at the corner table, but at the moment I was not particularly enthused by the idea of human interaction. Directionless and admittedly rather down on myself, I sauntered out towards the commons, doing my best to give off the impression that I knew exactly where I wanted to go, regardless of the truth.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sulking in the armory, the only place on campus that felt familiar and welcoming. Tools and weapons don't have motives or hidden agendas. They're easy to understand. They have a purpose, a reason to exist. As I sat there fiddling with a couple bits of scrap metal, however, I couldn't help but wonder for the first time in my life if being a huntress was really as straightforward a life as I'd always believed.

A huntress is also a tool, in a way, right? I'd have a purpose. My whole reason for existing would be to save lives. I put myself between the helpless and all the threats in this world and either win, or die trying. What Raven had said, about huntsmen and huntresses being no better than mercenaries… I mean, it's a job. We get paid. That's never what it's been about, right? That's not why I've seen my dad risk his live over and over again. Half the time, the people he fought for barely had anything to pay us with. No. Raven could think what she wants. She can have whatever motivations suit her. I knew why I existed. All I had to do was look at my eyes in a mirror to know my responsibility to this world.

I emerged from the armory just as the undersides of the highest wisps of cloud ignited to a brilliant orange, the beginning of what promised to be a spectacular sunset. I was still full from my late lunch, so rather than head to dinner and risk rubbing elbows with the Branwen twins again, I opted instead to head out to the grand courtyard and watch the daylight of my first day at Beacon die. Five minutes later, I had found the perfect spot in the roots of an old forever fall maple beside a lily-strewn reflecting pool and sat. I slipped my headphones on and donned my hood, content to lean against that tree and watch the clouds burn as the horizon devoured the sun.

Motion in my peripheral vision minutes later interrupted my brooding, however. Though my head remained still, my eyes snapped to the figure. I was relieved firstly to determine that it wasn't Raven or Qrow. The next thing I noticed, however, was the weapon of the girl who seemed to be combing the main thoroughfare meticulously, eyes glued to the pavers. It was the massive great sword I'd noticed in the cafeteria, the one with the split along the spine that I was sure was for some kind of dust-charge conduction. The girl it was attached to, or more accurately, was attached to it, was the same one I'd noticed earlier as well. Short, slight frame, and kind eyes that met mine when I didn't look away fast enough. She turned towards me hesitantly.

So much for solitude. I watched her approach, trying without much success to pretend I didn't notice, and slipped one earpiece of my headphones off when she got a little closer. "Can… I help you?" I prompted after another brief moment of eye contact.

"Hey… Hav—uh, you haven't seen a locket around here, have you? I think it fell out of my bag, but I've spent all afternoon retracing my steps and haven't found it."

"I haven't, no. Sorry." I was about to leave it at that, but the girl's disappointed and helpless look prompted me to remove my other earpiece and lower my hood. "Did you check with Campus Security?"

"Yeah, I did. Nothing."

"Maybe someone else picked it up. What's it look like?"

"Silver nevermore skull on a silver chain. Ruby eyes. The beak opens up, projects a holo of me and my mom. She got it for me just before I jumped on the transport this morning, kind of an early birthday present."

Before my negativity could stop me, I heard myself saying, "Don't worry. We'll find it." It was the right thing to do, and I knew it, but most of me really just wanted to go back to minding my own business. The girl thanked me and she and I commenced looking around in the grass and along the pathway leading up to the landing pad. As we did, I felt my angst melting away.

A few more minutes of unfruitful searching passed before the girl finally spoke again. "Aren't you the girl that fought those second-years earlier?"

"Ahh… Yeahhh. That was me," I replied, realizing then that my conflict with CNDY would be the first impression most of my peers among the first years would have of me. Good thing I didn't get my butt kicked. "Still kinda surprised I didn't get into trouble for that."

"I was too, especially when the headmaster showed up. But I told my brother about it and he actually didn't seem all that surprised. Said that that kind of thing will happen, every now and then. He's a fourth year. Leader of team HNTR."

"That sounds familiar… Didn't someone from HNTR win the Vytal Tournament the year before last?"

"Yep!" The girl exclaimed proudly. "My big bro. Now it's my turn. Do the Rainart name proud, y'know? Speaking of names, what's yours?"

"Oh. I, uh, I never asked you yours either. I kinda feel really rude now. Summer Rose. You?"

"Heh. Don't worry about it. I'm Gretchen. Rainart. Wait, I already said that part… Whatever."

I giggled a little. She seemed nice enough, I suppose. Of course, I'd thought that about Qrow, and just look how that'd turned out. "Well, it's getting dark." The sun had dipped down below the high cliffs by now, casting the courtyard into shadow as lampposts and ground lighting began to tick on around every path and pool. "I don't think we're gonna find it tonight. Sorry."

"No need to apologize. I'm the one who lost it. Maybe someone will turn it in tomorrow."

"Yeah, maybe." The two of us headed off, stopping by the locker rooms adjacent the sparring classroom to lock up our weapons for the night before heading to the ballroom. Gretchen and I pushed open the doors to find the area already starting to fill up. We selected a free corner and began to set up our sleeping bags, but as we did I noticed two familiar figures talking quietly to themselves, just a little bit too nearby for my liking. "Hang on a minute, Gretchen."

"What?"

"Let's find a different corner. Kinda crowded over here."

"What do you mean? There's no one here."

I nodded in the twins' direction. "Rather not be too nearby those two right now. Had a bit of an argument earlier, not really in the mood to be anywhere near them."

"Isn't that the kid who got stuck in the gum?"

"Yep. Thought he was a nice guy. Guess I'm a terrible judge of character, though."

"And the girl?"

"His twin sister."

"Hm. She came up to me this morning, asking for directions. It was weird though, like she asked how to get to the library, and after I told her she headed off in pretty much exactly the opposite direction."

I nodded. "Sounds about right."

The two of us picked up our things and moved over to a more crowded area that, though we had to step awkwardly over and around some people, was sufficiently far from the Branwens. "What was the argument about? Gretchen asked as we set up very closely adjacent one another.

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Well, the short version is that they wanted me to help them steal Hargrave's tablet to get a sneak peek at what to expect during initiation tomorrow."

"And you turned them down?"

"Course I did. I'm not a thief. Raven got all mad cause I showed some basic morality or… something. And I'm pissed at Qrow mainly because I know it was him who suggested the idea in the first place."

"They're both named after birds?"

I snickered. "Yeah. Qrow is spelled weird though. Saw it on his student ID when we went to get lunch, got a 'Q' instead of a 'C'."

"That is weird. Hm. Bet anything they're gonna try and figure out some way to break the rules whether you helped them or not. Hazel said it happens every year, kids trying to beat the system or whatever. They never can. The instructors are tight lipped and it's an unspoken rule among upperclassmen not to talk to first-years about initiation. They don't ever even do it in the same place every year. Sometimes it's Forever Fall, sometimes it'll be down to the south east closer to Mountain Glen, and sometimes it's in—"

"The Emerald Forest. That's where Professor Ozpin told me it'd be."

"He… What? The Headmaster… _Told you_?"

"Yeah. I mean, not everything. Just that."

"Well, that's more than I've heard. When did you talk to Professor Ozpin?"

"While I was… aha uh, lost. Looking for the armory. Kinda just ran into him."

"Wow. Well, that's not much to go on, but it's something," Gretchen shrugged. "We'll see. If the Headmaster wasn't trying mislead you, then I bet most of the challenge will center around the ancient city out to the east of here."

"Ancient city?"

"Yeah. You've seen ruins before, right? There's a ton of them around Vale. We took field trips to them when I was going to Pharos Academy in downtown Vale."

"Yeah. I think my class from Signal went with you guys. I skipped that trip though. I mean, I've seen ruins before. I… Well I was always taught to stay away from them, though."

"Wait, really? Why?"

I remembered back to sitting around the fire with my Aunt Kyrin and the other village elders when I was very young, listening to the deep and serious yet kind voice of the village chief as he, my father, and the other warriors recounted adventures they'd had. "Well… This is gonna sound weird. My dad and I lived with a nomadic tribe when I was really little. Places like that were forbidden to them. They avoided them during times of travel, they never set up camp anywhere near them. The grimm are attracted to them, which already makes them dangerous, but it's more than that."

"What do you mean?" Gretchen asked.

"It's hard to explain. So, to this clan, aura is sacred. It's not just a tool, like it is for us. If I remember right, I think they believe it's a blessing from their main deity. I guess because of that, only the Chief is trained to use it. He's like the protector, their god's instrument or something. But the way he meditates, or… I don't know. They develop it very differently than they teach us at combat schools. Some closely-guarded tribal secret. It made the Chief's aura strong— a lot stronger than my father's, even—and somehow, whatever they do allows them to speak to the dead. Or… Hear them. Feel them? I don't know. Red Wolf wasn't really all that clear with the way he explained it, or maybe I was too young to really get it at the time."

Gretchen's brow furrowed. "What? Speaking to the dead? Come on. That's… You don't actually believe them, do you?"

"Hm. My dad asked a question like that once. I still remember the story Chief Red Wolf answered him with. When he was younger, I think he said 15 years old, part of his 'coming of age' ritual was to be left in one of these old cities for one moon cycle. Part of a Chief's duty, to gain a respect for what the gods can do to a people that fail to honor them. His father, the previous Chief, left him on the outskirts of what might've once been a great city to fend for himself. Red Wolf said that every moment he spent there, this sense of dread in the pit of his stomach grew and grew, until it almost drove him mad. He said those ruins felt… Dark. That he could feel _death_ all around those stones, like they were literally soaked with pain and fear. After a while he said he swore he could almost hear their screams in his sleep. It was in those moments that he came to realize: Whatever happened to those people… Wherever they went, it was something awful. Unnatural. That's why, to that clan, those places are cursed. As is everyone who disturbs them."

Gretchen studied me for a moment, as if trying to decide if I really believed what I was saying. In all honesty, I wasn't even sure myself. It sounded nuts. Superstitious nonsense and nothing else. But I could remember the look in Red Wolf's eyes when he'd spoken about the ruins to us. There was a very real pain there, as if he felt true despair at the recollection of… Well, whatever he'd experienced. There was no way that there wasn't _some_ truth to it all. "Go ahead," I said, just as the pensive moment the two of us had began to feel a bit too drawn out.

"Go ahead what?"

"Call me crazy."

"I wouldn't do that…" Gretchen said, speaking slowly, still clearly unsure of what to make of what I'd said. "I don't know. This old Chief or whatever… Maybe he did get some weird vibe from whatever ruins he visited. I can't really say one way or the other. Now do I believe any of that about curses and talking to the dead and whatnot? Ehh. I'll get back to you on that. But I don't think you're crazy for believing him. Not one bit."

"Ah, well," I replied. "That's a relief I suppose."

"Still, cursed or not, sometimes Huntsmen and Huntresses have to go to places like that. My dad's escorted more than a few archaeologists to the ruins I think we'll be headed to tomorrow. Nothing ever struck any of them dead."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'd have to get over that old superstition eventually. It's just hard to shake something like that if you've grown up believing it, y'know?"

"Yeah. Well, on he bright side, I might be completely wrong about the challenge."

"But… Your brother's a fourth year. He didn't tell you for sure what your mission would be if you ended up in the Emerald Forest?"

"Oh no. He wouldn't say a word about the challenge itself. It's just, well like I said, there's a huge old city out there. It would make sense for us to end up there, but no, it's just another guess, really."

"I guess we'll find out tomorrow," I sighed as I lay back. "Good night."

"'Night."

"My head hit the pillow and I realized then just how exhausted I was. It'd been a long day, the first of many. As I began to drift off I quietly hoped I'd end up on a team with Gretchen, and not Qrow or Raven.


	5. Chapter 5: Initiation (Part I)

**Chapter 5: Initiation (Part 1)**

Sunlight was streaming into the ballroom when my eyes first opened the next morning. I was confused for a moment as I sat up, wondering why I wasn't in my room on Patch. I didn't hear my father bustling about in the kitchen, and the smell of chocolate chip pancakes and bacon wasn't filling the air on this Saturday morning like it had almost every Saturday, no matter where we'd lived. I looked around as I recalled the answer, taking in the shapes of students all around me, some awake, some still dead to the world, and some shifting and groaning in attempts to keep the morning's first light out of their bleary eyes and steal a few more precious minutes of sleep before it would be time to begin preparing for the day's initiation challenge.

Gretchen was among the number who were wide awake already, and smiled at me as she rolled up her sleeping bag and stuffed it into her backpack. "Morning," she said cheerfully as I rubbed the grogginess out of my eyes.

"Hey," I smiled back as I pulled myself out of my cozy cocoon and my bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor. I winced at the shock of it and pulled them back before slowly easing them down again for a second try. Note to self: Buy slippers.

"Sleep alright?" Gretchen asked.

"Mmm. Mmmhhm." I mumbled in response as I stretched, feeling my spine and neck decompress from a night on the hard floor of the ballroom. "You?" I asked as my companion stood.

"Yeah, not bad. Not exactly a feather bed," she grinned as she softly planted her foot to emphasize the hardness of the floor, "But hopefully this is the last night we'll have to deal with this."

"Doubt it," I said, remembering all times my dad and I had spent out in the wilds with tribes and tiny, off-the-grid villages that barely had running water, let alone feather beds.

Gretchen chuckled. "Hey, this city-girl can hope."

I packed up my possessions and slung my bag. "I hate fighting grimm on an empty stomach. Let's go eat."

"Before or after we get dressed?"

I rolled my eyes and played along. "Before, obviously. Gretchen. We're gonna walk right up in there in our PJ's and sit down with our food next to the biggest, meanest-looking team of fourth-years we can find, and lay it out. Let 'em know who's really in charge around here."

We both laughed at the idea, and Gretchen shrugged. "That'd be HNTR. Nyri would probably humor us, and Hazel wouldn't be that surprised. Titus and Rowan… Jury's still out. Only met them once."

Gretchen and I moved off towards the entryway of the ballroom, careful not to step on anyone who lay in our path. As I pushed open the heavy oak door and held it for her, my final glance around the room halted and my gaze narrowed as I locked eyes with Qrow, who knelt beside his smirking sister on the opposite end of the dance floor. His return stare remained neutral for the brief second of eye contact we shared before I spun around and let the door close behind me. Had I held the look for a moment longer, or if I'd looked back, perhaps I would've seen when he cast his eyes ruefully downward.

The rest of the morning seemed to drag by as the anticipation for the upcoming challenge mounted. I was disappointed not to find chocolate chip pancakes as a menu item in the cafeteria, but the waffles with whipped cream and strawberries was certainly a reasonable substitute. Still, Gretchen and I joked about making the menu request to my 'buddy', the Headmaster. The two of us took our time eating, went to retrieve our weapons and stow our bags, and even dropped by the dust dispensary to top off our ammo and propellant without so much as a notification about when or where to report. Two of the dust reservoirs on Scourge were still full, and the burn dust cylinder that had seen use yesterday only needed a few more grams. Every little bit helps, though, so I filled it to capacity and snapped the reservoir back into its place within my grip.

I turned in time to see Gretchen slip a few black, uncut gravity dust crystals into a pouch on her hip.

"Gravity? Interesting choice."

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I can insert them into the sword here," she replied, indicating some kind of clamp or mount that I hadn't noticed before, built into the hollow space centered in the quillion block of her weapon. "Pulls grimm towards the blade, so I can use it to get just a bit more power out of every swing."

"I'm surprised you can swing it at all. Must be a lot lighter than it looks."

Gretchen smiled, and I didn't catch the mischievous note in her voice when she twirled the massive weapon like a toy and extended the grip towards me. "Here, see for yourself."

"Sure, yeah lemme see—" _FWUNK_! The heft took me by surprise and the blade thudded into the ground loudly. I could barely support the hilt, and my knuckles began to turn white as I strained not to drop it. " _UHHFF…_ Not light. NOT LIGHT."

Gretchen laughed so hard she doubled over while I struggled to even maintain my grip on what must've been at least forty kilograms of cold steel alloy… And I was only supporting the half of the sword that wasn't resting on the ground. "You must not be worthy," she teased.

"Yeah… Guess not… Here, uh, can you…" I grunted helplessly.

"Sure, yeah. Here." With one hand, Gretchen took hold of the grip, lifting the weapon easily. She added a quick flourish as she replaced the sword into her half-sheath and cracked her knuckles. She grinned again at my slack-jawed reaction.

"How… Okay, what the heck," I asked, incredulous. "Was that… your semblance, or the sword or…

"Kinda both. My semblance is kinda complicated and hard to explain."

"Try me," I grinned. If there one thing I was pretty sure of, is was that few people could out-dork me.

"So, short story is that my semblance is gravity manipulation. I can redirect the way gravity interacts with my body. You know how gravity is always pulling you down, and you're used to it so you don't really feel the effects but you know it's there?"

"Yeah?"

"It's different for me. Ever since my semblance first kicked in back during the early part of combat school, gravity has felt like a river, flowing through and around my body. Mostly, that current always just pulled me down. The more I practiced, though, the more I could start to re-direct that current into my kicks, punches, jumps… I even figured out how to wall-run for short distances. People all looked at me funny when I forged Quake," Gretchen indicated the tremendous blade on her back before continuing, "It was bigger than me when I did. But my control over my own gravity and the gravity of anything I touch allows me to swing it around like it doesn't weigh anything."

"Ohhhh, because technically, when you're holding it, it doesn't! That's really cool. So, what do the gravity crystals do then? There's gotta be more to it than just pulling grimm towards the edge."

"Yeah, there is. That's where it kinda starts to get real technical, though. Sure you wanna hear it?"

I grinned. "Bring it."

"Alright. So yeah, the crystal amplifies Quake's gravimetric field so I can wield it even more easily. More than that though, the crystal responds to my semblance and aura by producing a lot of extra energy. It's like the crystal harmonizes with my own powers and reacts. Dunno how many prototypes ripped themselves apart in my face before I figured that out back in combat school. Anyway, I figured out a way to siphon that extra energy off and get it into a state where I could actually control it. See this ring here?" Gretchen pointed at the edge of that circular opening in Quake's guard. "It's a super-dense osmium-tungsten alloy. I mixed a ton of powdered gravity dust into the crucible with the molten metals. That dust lost its charge a long time ago, so it remains inert, locked in the alloy until a crystal is inserted. But, as soon as I plug a new crystal, like this…" Gretchen withdrew one of the crystals from her pouch and locked one end of it into place in the guard. "…It all re-energizes."

The tungsten ring in the blade went from a dull grey to a vibrant purple in just a few moments after the crystal was seated. The eerie violet glow reflected off the blade and off of Gretchen's hands as she gripped it, grinning at my reaction. "At any time, I can pull the trigger and shunt all that energy by separating the blade down the middle, here, which breaks that loop. That'll cause a gravity blast that gets bigger the longer the cycle goes unbroken. Made a boarbatusk explode that way once. It was awesome."

"Ooohhh… I might have to get you to show me how you draw power from the pure crystal like that. Could be useful if I ever adapt it for Scourge or Thorn."

"Nuh-uh. Closely-guarded super top-secret, that," Gretchen said as she shook her head sarcastically. "Don't worry, it's okay to have only the second-coolest weapon at the school, Summer."

"Psh. Please. Scourge would rip that oversized butter knife out of your hand in a heartbeat," I shot back.

"Whatever you say," Gretchen nodded with a wry grin. "Whatever you say."

We both laughed as the two of us left the dispensary. Just as the doors closed behind us, our scrolls buzzed in unison, a broadcast alert:

 **ALL FIRST YEAR STUDENTS:**

 **REPORT TO THE EASTERN CLIFFS IMMEDIATELY. INITIATION WILL BEGIN IN FIFTEEN MINUTES. DO NOT BE LATE.**

"About time," I said.

"Eastern cliffs, huh?" Gretchen's eyebrow raised. "Emerald Forest it is, then."

"Guess the professor wasn't lying," I said as I nodded. "C'mon. We'd better get there early. I don't want to find out what happens to latecomers."

Gretchen and I reached the cliffside with barely a minute to spare. I saw professor Ozpin standing on the very edge of the cliff alongside professor Hargrave. The headmaster nodded at me as I passed him and the dean, a gesture I returned before Gretchen and I followed suit with the students who'd arrived before us and took our places on a row of metal plates aligned a few meters from the precipice of the half-kilometer sheer drop before us.

"What do you think these are?" I asked Gretchen, who simply shrugged as she examined the devices upon which we now stood. Each had the crossed axe sigil of the Kingdom of Vale, and appeared to be more than simple solid platforms. There was a tiny amount of give in mine, as if there was some kind of mechanism beneath it. I ceased wondering about that when I heard the booming voice of professor Hargrave as he silenced the general murmur that had arisen amongst the line of students.

"Initiates. This is your time. You were all selected based on transcripts sent to us from your combat schools or your scores on our entry tests. Scores and records mean nothing out there, though," Hargrave thundered as he indicated the vast woodland before us. "Now it is time to prove yourself in actual combat. The beasts in this forest are as numerous as they are varied. Do not underestimate their capacity to kill and destroy, remember everything you have learned, and you will be recognized this evening when teams are assembled for the first time. Become overconfident, or complacent, and… Well, there won't be much point in sending out a recovery party for your remains."

"What did he just say?" Gretchen gulped.

"Relax." I was calm on the outside, but even I was surprised by the brutal candor of the dean's statement. "You and I will watch each other's backs. We'll be fine." Gretchen nodded, but in all honesty, I wasn't sure who I'd just attempted to reassure- her, or myself.

Professor Ozpin stepped forward next. Calmly, he surveyed each and every one of us, took a sip from his mug, and spoke. "Your objective is on the far side of these woodlands. You are to recover one of the relics placed at an ancient temple to the Brother-Gods, located at the center of the ruins of the great Precursor city due east of here."

A knot formed in my throat as soon as those words left the professor's mouth, and Gretchen and I shared a look as the Headmaster continued. "Return here with that relic by this evening, and you will have earned your place at this academy. As Professor Hargrave indicated, there are many grimm between you and that goal, which is why it would behoove you to form larger groups in a mutual effort to ensure each of your peers survive. That being said, you will pair up with the very first person you make eye contact with upon reaching the forest floor. We are watching. Any attempt to sidestep that rule will be met with expulsion. Furthermore, both you and your new partner will be put on a team this afternoon with another pair from this challenge for the rest of your time at this academy."

I turned to Gretchen. Our concern was mirrored in each other's faces. "Stay close," I murmured. My friend nodded.

"Now, if there are no further questions…" I thought I heard someone ask further down the line how exactly they would be getting to the forest floor from all the way up here. I wasn't sure if Ozpin heard them or not, but he didn't answer, regardless. "Excellent. Fight well, initiates. Good Luck."

The instant he finished speaking, I saw a blur from the far end of the line. I recognized the silhouette of a student, flailing about from the unexpected launch as he tumbled far out over the cliff and down to the trees below. I realized then that the plate upon which I stood was in fact a small but powerful pneumatic catapult. The two guys next to me bumped knuckles, which I only found comical because the one closer to me was wearing some kind of mechanized exo-arm, the clenched fist of which dwarfed that of his friend. The other guy, a tall, muscular beach-blonde kid, pulled a pair of gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses off his partially unbuttoned shirt and down over his dark blue eyes with a wink in my direction before he crouched and extended a pair of bladed tonfas in each hand.

One by one, the line leading to Gretchen and I got shorter and shorter. Before too long, Aviator-guy was launched, soaring off with an exultant shout. That left me second in line behind his buddy. I noticed Ozpin watching me then with calm interest, heard the mechanical clicks of the launchpad next to me before a hiss of pressure sent the kid with the mecha-arm sailing off, and turned one last reassuring look in Gretchen's direction before I was suddenly and unceremoniously hurled skyward over the vast forested valley below.

Every combat school I'd attended had, at some point, trained students on 'landing strategy'. I'd never really taken it seriously—I mean, come on. How often was I _really_ likely to be falling at terminal velocity without a parachute towards a forest full of deadly monsters? Right about now, though, I was _really_ wishing I hadn't asked. The trees that had looked like an unbroken, verdant green blanket from atop the cliff now rushed into individual focus at an alarming rate. _A little late to turn back now,_ I thought as I retrieved and unspooled Scourge. Ahead of me, an enormous old tree stood twenty or thirty meters above every other in the immediate area. That would do. I angled myself to take best advantage of my momentum, waited for the perfect moment, and ripped my arm forward, sending my whip arcing ahead of me just as I broke even with the highest branch capable of supporting my weight.

Since there was no dust reservoir selected, no flaming plasma arc activated as the end of the whip contacted and looped twice around my targeted bough. If it had, the intense heat would simply have burnt through and severed the branch and I would've continued falling unimpeded. As it was, I gripped Scourge with white knuckles as my inertia was brutally re-directed, and I fought the centrifugal force of the resulting swing that sent me looping again and again around the limb. Finally, I began to decelerate, and used the last, slow swing to flip up and onto my new perch a few meters above the even the highest waving leaves of the rest of the forest.

I took a moment to catch my breath and allow the adrenaline rush from the fall to abate before searching the skies for Gretchen. I saw her seconds later, sword in hand, hurtling towards the treetops about two hundred meters away. I watched as she crashed through the uppermost branches and out of sight. I knew had to get to her first, and began to trot down the branch towards the thick trunk of the tree. In my rush, I forgot that Scourge was still looped around the branch like some kind of tangled reverse yo-yo, and I almost lost my footing when my weapon didn't give at all as I pulled.

Grumbling my frustration, I flicked the selector switch to burn dust. A flick of my wrist sent a wave of heat down and around the hopelessly snarled braid, vaporizing the end of the branch into smoke and ash. Once the bladed whip was dangling freely, I retracted and replaced it on its mag plate and carefully balanced across the branch down to the tree trunk. Extending Thorn into my right hand, I kept the three segments of the blades locked in their collapsed configuration to form a short dagger, the pivots of which rotated around the ring to align with the bottom of the fist I had clenched on its grip. Leaping straight down from the base of the branch, I jammed Thorn through the bark and into the dense hardwood of the tree itself, carving a gouge down the length of the trunk as I descended down into the darkness of the Emerald Forest.

When I was near enough to the ground, I yanked Thorn from the tree and extended it to its full length, kicking off the trunk and flipping backwards to land with my short sword brandished and Scourge retracted but ready for action in my back hand. The immediate area was clear of grimm, thankfully, so I jogged off through the underbrush in the direction I'd seen Gretchen falling.

It was slower going than I would've preferred through the thick undergrowth, but within a few minutes I made it to approximately where I thought my friend must've landed. There was no sign of her, save the top half of a tall pine that had been freshly and cleanly cloven from its base by what I presumed was her sword as she fell. "Gretchen!" I shouted, ignoring the risk of drawing more grimm to my location with the noise. "Gretchen! Where are you?" Nothing. I pushed on through the disorienting maze of tree trunks and rhododendron, eyes alert for any sign of motion. I was hoping beyond hope I'd find her waiting for me just over the next rise or boulder, pausing to call out every so often and listen for a response.

"Summer? Summer! Over here!" My ears perked up when after several minutes, I finally heard Gretchen's voice answer my shouts. She was close.

I sprinted off, over the next hill and down, breaking into a clearing at the bottom just in time to see her sunder a beowolf from shoulder to thigh with Quake. Our eyes met, and for a moment I thought I had my first pick for a teammate. That thought was dashed a second later, though, when I saw the guy who'd launched just before me land a well-timed mechanical uppercut that shattered another grimm's jaw and sent it flying as he posted up back-to-back in the middle of the glade with Gretchen. Damn. A vain hope that perhaps they'd never actually made eye contact flashed through my mind, but I brushed it aside. I'd been too slow, and that was that.

A single look past the pair of first years told me the situation was a little worse than simply not getting the teammate I wanted. In the clearing beyond Gretchen and her redheaded partner, dozens of bad-tempered black shapes bayed and snarled as they moved to encircle the duo. My best guess put their numbers at about forty of the werewolf-like creatures… A fairly large pack of beowolves. A roar from the thicket from which I'd just emerged alerted me to an imminent attack and I spun, lashing out with Scourge as I dodged and rolled left under a clawed strike from a beo that burst from the bushes. The braid snapped and a jolt of burning plasma roasted the grimm to ash that evaporated and blew away. The hedges rustled, and another dozen monsters appeared from the direction I'd come as I dashed over to my two classmates. They now completely surrounded us.

It didn't take long before we were really in the middle of it. A seemingly relentless tide of teeth and claws flashed and snapped inches from each of us as we fought, burning, brutalizing and butchering wave after wave. I ensnared one of the creatures with Scourge, yanking it to a quick demise when I ran its gaping maw through with Thorn, and followed up that attack by whipping the legs out from beneath a pair who had reared up to swipe at Gretchen with their front paws. She and the redheaded boy finished them off, her with Quake and him with that massive powered gauntlet of his.

The pack didn't let up, charging mindlessly in, relying on brute force and numbers to overwhelm us. At no point did that concern even cross my mind, though, as I let the dance of combat take me and slew everything that got within reach. Cool efficiency. Economy of movement. I could hear my dad's lessons in my mind the whole time. This was just business. One of the monsters got past Gretchen and managed to snap its fangs way too close for comfort by my ear as I dismembered another to my front, but I didn't flinch. I could sense its position well enough, and threw a blind thrust back and up with Thorn, its blade spinning around to a reverse-grip position as I did. The strike impaled the nearly-successful attacker through the chest, its wheezing, whimpering bark enough of a confirmation to me that I'd scored a critical hit.

Ripping my sword from the stunned and dying creature's ribs, I pushed off and slid low to sweep-kick the legs out from the last minor beo in the pack. Gretchen and I dispatched it simultaneously with our blades as it yelped with shock and surprise at its undignified demise.

"Oh, sorry, did you want that kill?" Gretchen smiled as she hefted her blade.

"What are you talking about? I _got_ that kill." I retorted.

"Nuh-uh. Bigger sword. By anime rules that means I got the kill."

"But we're not _in_ an anime, Gretch."

"Uh, ladies, please. We still have a problem here," Gretchen's redheaded new teammate interjected. He was right. The pack's alpha was still alive. While the younger grimm had rushed headlong into the fray, this one had hung back and watched. I remembered my dad telling me about these more evolved grimm. Alpha beowolves, ursa majors, greater nevermore, elder griffons, silverback beringels, even a wendigo once… All of them had been some of the most cunning and dangerous creatures he'd ever faced. I'd never seen one up close. This alpha stood probably close to six meters tall as it reared, its jaws alone large enough to swallow either Gretchen or me whole.

The monster's ears perked straight up as it studied the three of us. We had just annihilated its pack, and though we were all a little out of breath, no one had so much as a scratch. Trails of strange scarlet energy curled away from its featureless glowing eyes, coals that betrayed neither fear nor rage as they burned from their deep-set sockets in the alpha's bony skull. Finally, it dropped back down to all fours and began to pace back and forth, slowly closing its distance, testing the way we shifted to cover ourselves against its approach.

"Smart, this one," the redheaded boy mumbled from my right.

I grunted. "Hm. We're smarter. I'll move in, piss it off, maybe get it to trip up. You two look for an opening. Don't underestimate it, don't attack early. I've got the middle."

"Left," Gretchen replied, affirming my plan by drifting wide to the huge monster's right flank.

"Guess you know where I'm going," her teammate said as he pushed out to my right, mechanical fist cocked and ready to counter if the grimm charged him.

The alpha let out a spine-tingling snarl, eyes fixated on me as I stepped forward, directly towards it. I wanted it to rush me, if only to give my other two companions a chance at killing it. I kept Scourge out but spooled up, retracting Thorn and replacing it against my gauntlet. I could retrieve it if need be for a quick counter, but as of right now I wanted to look as defenseless as possible… Another of my father's little tricks. Tension mounted as the distance between me and the alpha's teeth dwindled to within ten meters. The creature stopped, apparently fully aware that it was now surrounded, and I saw rippling muscles bunching beneath its coat of coarse black fur in preparation for a pounce. _Good._ My finger moved to the trigger on Scourge, ready for a quick deployment of the braid when the instant arose.

Suddenly, the eerie silence in the clearing what broken by the rapid _thump thump thump thump_ of sprinting footsteps behind me. I dared not take my eyes of the alpha to see who it was. "Tai! Wait!" the redheaded boy called to the individual whose pounding feet I heard. An unexpected concussive blast caused me to duck as a figure I recognized as the blonde guy from the clifftop sailed over my head, straight for the open, roaring jaws of the alpha.

"Nuh-uh! No biting!" I heard the newcomer scold the beo like he was admonishing a puppy. I thought he was a goner. The alpha's jaws began to snap closed as it lunged at the boy. Without missing a beat, however, the grimm's intended target curled his body into a ball and fired his tonfas upward, causing him to somersault forward and down, sailing barely an inch beneath the jaws of the beast. As he passed, he flipped one of his tonfas around and, holding it by the longer striking end, and managed to hook the beowolf's lower jaw with an icepick-like spike that flashed out from the opposite side of the weapon's T-handle grip.

The Alpha bellowed as its head was yanked downward, but it recovered, far too strong to be brought down and pinned by the weight of a single teenager. I watched as this 'Tai' kid was swung this way and that as the beowolf reared and shook its head violently. He held on, to his credit, but I knew he wouldn't be able to keep that grip indefinitely. "Let's get in there and help him out!" I called to my other companions. The three of us rushed in, giving the beowolf some pause, long enough for Blondie to pull himself up and flip onto the back of its neck, retracting and dislodging his blade as he did. The beowolf growled and reached for the most immediate danger that was now sat upon its shoulders with its massive claws, but it was too late. Blondie, hanging on with his right hand gripping the monster's fur, leaned left to hang off its neck, avoiding the swipe. The alpha craned its neck hard in the boy's direction, attempting to snap at him, but as he did Blondie jammed the short end of one of his tonfas deep into its eye socket and fired another concussive round.

The bloodcurdling howl of pain was the loudest I'd ever heard. Enraged, the beast managed to grab Tai's leg and rip him from its neck, throwing him like a rag doll. He'd be fine, I hoped. It mattered little. Gretchen, myself, and the redhead boy were all within striking distance now. Tai's friend grabbed the wrist of the monster with his mechanical fist, putting the creature in an armbar as he twisted and stepped back. I slid underneath the still-snapping jaws from head-on, deploying Scourge's braid and whipping it around the creature's immobilized arm as I did. A flick of my wrist and Scourge burned right through the black flesh of the alpha, severing its right arm below the elbow.

Gretchen sailed in from the opposite side, but the beo wasn't blind to his right. Maimed as it was, it still managed to dodge away from the powerful downstroke of Quake that would have decapitated it. I stabbed the creature's left haunch with Thorn, hoping to slow it even more so Gretchen could recover and get another swing. As she attempted to do just that, however, the creature whirled on me. My mistimed leap to get out of the way was in vain as the beo grabbed Thorn's braid with its remaining paw. It was against my gut instinct to relinquish a weapon in combat, so I held on… And subsequently learned the hard way that my instincts were mistaken. The alpha swung me back around to its right, using me like a flail and knocking over Gretchen, which caused her to accidentally hit the trigger on Quake's grip. The blade split down the middle and a blast of dark purple energy exploded outward from the sword. No one had been braced for it, including the alpha. Everyone was hurled in whatever direction was directly away from the crystal in its grip, as if gravity itself flipped directions for a moment.

The blast abated, and I picked myself up from where I'd landed next to Blondie. I reached down to pull him to his feet, making eye contact as I did. The redhead and Gretchen both stood and reoriented themselves, as if still trying to figure out which way gravity was actually pulling. From the opposite side of the clearing where it had landed, the beowolf picked itself up too, and with a wounded snarl, retreated into the woods.

"We gotta go after him!" Blondie shouted as he attempted to run after the alpha. He took one step before crying out in pain and falling flat on his face again. "Ow. Alright, you guys run after him."

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.

"Ankle. Where the alpha grabbed me. I think it's dislocated."

"Easy fix," I grumbled. "Let me see." The boy pulled up his left pantleg, and winced as I unlaced and removed his shoe.

"Dunno what you're talking about, 'easy fix'. Unless you're some kind of doc."

"Not a doctor. But I do have this," I said as I retrieved a small trauma kit from my belt. "Guys? You two mind standing guard while I take care of the hero here?"

"Gotcha," Gretchen affirmed, yanking Quake out of the dirt.

I undid the snap on the kit and rifled through tourniquets, bandages, painkillers… My dad had taught me to keep stuff like this handy, in case the worst happened and your aura gave out, exposing you to real injury. "Aha. Here we go," I said as I retrieved a thin mesh ankle sleeve from the pack.

"How is that little thing supposed to help?" Blondie wondered aloud.

"Just shut up and you'll find out."

"Sheesh. I really got Nurse Grumpy over here, Val— _OW ow ow OWWW_!" I'd tweaked his ankle on purpose for that last remark as I pulled the brace over his swollen foot and ankle. I gave a yank to the pull-tab that ran the length of the outside edge of the sleeve, tearing it out and breaking the seal on the integral packet of pain suppressants and cooling agents. Blondie sighed with relief. "Wow. Hardly feel a thing, now."

"Good, this would hurt a lot otherwise."

"Wait, wha—" _SNAP!_ Before he could protest, I yanked his foot back into line with his lower leg. " _OWWww! AHHHhh…_ Ohhhh. I actually didn't… Uhh… Yeah, I didn't feel that."

"Don't move. Cast's gotta set so you don't heal with a crooked foot."

"Yes Ma'am," Blondie grunted, tentatively appreciative. I pulled the secondary pull tab that ran along the instep side of the brace. The instant I did, a hardening fluid that reacts to open air spread through the breathable capillaries in the outer layer of the sleeve. Within seconds, the boy's ankle was secure in a thin, rock-hard casing that he tested his weight on as he stood. "Nice. Thanks… er…"

"Summer Rose. Guess we're on a team together, Blondie."

"Guess so. It's Tai, by the way. Taiyang Xiao Long."

"You always just blast right into the fight like that, Tai?" I asked pointedly.

"Stopped you from being dog food," Tai replied with a flippant shrug.

"We had that under control. I wanted it to attack me so Gretchen and… Sorry, I still don't know your name," I said as an aside to Gretchen's companion before continuing, "So it would commit to going after me and those two could take it out."

"Well, sorry that wasn't my first impression when I came out the bushes and saw you thirty feet from an alpha beo with no weapon out."

"I know what I'm doing," I insisted.

"Never said you didn't."

"You… whatever. Just don't do that again." I realized then that I probably shouldn't come off so antagonistically with a guy who was going to be my teammate for the next four years whether I liked it or not. "Please," I added, my tone only a bit less unapologetic.

"I saw you land on that tree," Gretchen said, as soon as my little spat with Tai seemed to be over. "Sorry. I was gonna try and come find you but… Grimm. You know. Whole pack versus me... I'm lucky Val here showed up when he did, and you a minute or two after."

"It's fine, Gretchen. Maybe the four of us will end up on a team when this is all over. For now, we just need to watch each other's backs." I turned to her teammate. "Val? Is that short for something or…?"

"Yeah, it is. You don't want to know. It's a mouthful. Pleasure to meet you though." Val extended his massive mechanical hand to shake. I took hold of its solid steel index finger to return the gesture.

"You're seriously not gonna tell 'em?" Tai asked. "Come on, it's hilarious." In a stuffy, mockingly aristocratic impersonation, Tai continued, "Manfred Adler Dietrich Valkyrie, the sixth." He snickered as he bowed, only to be shoved roughly to the ground by the armored palm of his embarrassingly named friend.

"Shuddup, Tai. Ugghh. Fine. Yeah, I've got one of those stupid family names. I hate it," he huffed as he brushed his mop of ginger hair out of his bright, expressive cyan eyes.

"I'm good with Val," I said. "All that other stuff is too much to bother remembering."

"Thanks. Alright, cripple," he said as he turned to Tai and hauled his friend to his feet. "You gonna make it? We really ought to get out of here before something else finds us."

"I'll be fine if you keep your hand to yourself from now on," Tai growled, testing his ankle once again before slipping his shoe back on and lacing it tightly.

"I'll keep my hand to myself when you learn to keep your trap shut."

"Mmmm… Nope. Not gonna happen."

"Exactly. So, don't complain when I smack you upside that smart mouth of yours."

"Alright boys. Trash-talk aside, does anyone have any idea where this 'Brother-God temple' is?"

I shrugged. "Kinda. Professor Ozpin said it was in the middle of the ancient city, but that's way out to the east of here, at the foot of the mountain range. That's a lot of ground to cover before this evening."

"Then I guess we'd better get going," Tai remarked impatiently.

"I'll take point," I said. With that, the four of us delved back into the undergrowth from the clearing and began our long trek to the very base of the Andarian Mountains.


	6. Chapter 6: Initiation (Part II)

**Chapter 6: Initiation (Part 2)**

"Valkyrie? Is… Is that…?

"I wondered the same thing when I first heard Nora's full name, when Ozpin called team JNPR up after your own initiation. Surprised me so much I almost missed when Ruby was named leader of her own team a few seconds later. She looks so like her father, doesn't she?"

"She... does." Pyrrha was studying Gretchen's partner with rapt attention as the two of us watched Val shove Tai in retaliation for revealing his full name. "Nora told Jaune, Ren, and I what she remembered of her family once. It wasn't much, but I know for sure she remembered that gauntlet. She could recall it in detail, actually. For once, I don't think she was exaggerating when she told us about the size of that thing."

"No, no I imagine it's hard to exaggerate about that."

"Did you and Nora's father stay in contact after… After you all graduated?"

I knew where this was going. Quietly, I hoped Pyrrha wouldn't ask the obvious follow-up question when I responded. "We did. I actually stayed over with them a few times in the years following, when missions took me out that way."

"Do you know what happened to him? To her mother?"

Of course… She'd asked. With my luck, it was probably _because_ I'd hoped she wouldn't that she did. There was no point in lying, but the memory was rather painful. "I don't know what happened to Talia. As for Val, he… He died…" I paused, swallowing hard against my guilt. "He died fighting by my side. I was the one who asked him to come with us. I'd met little Nora before on missions to Anima, but she'd been too young to remember. This time she did. Called me Auntie Summer, brought me a little daisy from their garden. Four years old. I… I saw Val kiss his little girl and his wife goodbye. Talia took me aside and made me promise I'd bring him back. It was an unsanctioned mission. Desperate. The same one that would take my life, actually." I hadn't meant to say so much. The memory was just as vivid as if it had just happened, and the words just… Came to me. I couldn't stop them.

"Uh… Summer?"

"Yes, Pyrr—Oh no." I snapped out of my remembrance, realizing then that as I had recalled the circumstances of Val's death, the Veil had begun to shift. I heard a sound, one of the very, very many I'd hoped never to have to relive.

"VAL! NO!" Tai's voice.

Those two words. The wind of the dust storm that raged in Salem's realm that day whipping past our ears, the snarling and screeching of thousands, no, tens of thousands of grimm, an army bred for a single purpose… I could hear it, echoing around and through the thick greenery of the Emerald Forest moments before the lush surround began to darken and morph into the nightmarish, twisted black and red landscape of the battlefield that sprawled over the forbidden and cursed lands of the Queen of Corruption's abode. The silhouettes of Tai, Qrow, and a half dozen other huntsmen and huntresses that battled back the onslaught began to materialize, details began to sharpen. I had to act fast.

I shut my eyes hard, gritting my teeth and covering my ears against the horrendous cacophony of that final battle, fighting to clear my mind of the horrible scene that was playing out around us and refocus on some point, _any_ point, in my initiation challenge. Finally, I found an image and held it, clinging to it like a sailor clutching onto floating wreckage at sea, and forcing that picture in my mind's eye to eclipse the scene of death and hopelessness that threatened to overwhelm the rest of my mind.

An ursa roared so close to my ear I couldn't help but imagine the stench of its breath. Even though I knew I didn't actually smell it, my senses remembered the unbearable halitosis caused by rotten flesh that often became caught in bony the bony jaws of the beasts, and my soul actually gagged from the recollection. For a split second, I thought it wasn't working. The veil wasn't responding. A moment more passed before I realized that it was. I cracked one eye to discover that the ursa was not part of Salem's army. The creature was simply one of several my group from initiation had just encountered. The sound of whipping wind was replaced by the crack of Scourge, the roars of the grimm army becoming by Val's battle cry as he threw a powerful spinning backhand that passed right through my ethereal head and shattered the jaw of the beast whose roar I'd just heard.

My eyes opened the rest of the way, and I stood, looking at Pyrrha. "I… I'm sorry. I'm usually much better at controlling what the veil shows us. That was… an intense memory though. One thing I'm sure you'll learn with time. The beyond will use our worst memories against us, and open the veil when we're at our most vulnerable. Learning to clear your mind is the only way you'll ever be able to stop it."

Pyrrha sighed bitterly, looking around at the forest that wasn't really there. "Do… Do you think this is Hell, Summer? I can't really imagine any kind of afterlife being much worse than this place."

"No." I replied reflectively, my mind still recovering from its brief loss of control. "I've been to hell. This place can be way worse, if you're not careful."

"You blame yourself for what happened to him, don't you?"

"I do. The whole thing was my idea. The whole damn thing was my fault." In what would again be considered a role-reversal in the case of who was supposed to be consoling whom, the young girl to my side laid a comforting hand on my shoulder, empathetic green eyes locked on mine.

"No one would've gone on that mission who didn't believe in you… Who wasn't willing to stay by your side to whatever end. They all saw a battle worth fighting, hopeless or not. That's not your fault. That's just destiny."

I felt my eyes water a little. I blinked the tears back, and smiled. "You're right, Pyrrha. I know. I've… I've told myself that same thing a million times, but it's always sounded hollow when the words I heard trying to convince me of it were just the echo of my own voice. Thank you."

"Your welcome, Summer," Pyrrha grinned. "Now, let's get back to your initiation."

"Agreed, yeah."

"Y'know, I didn't even see Raven and Qrow atop Beacon Cliff earlier. Where were they?"

"Oh, you know. Doing what they do best. Bending the rules and causing trouble. You'll see here in a bit."

There must've been a comical note of reflective exasperation in my voice at the mention of the Branwen twin's troublesome nature, because Pyrrha actually laughed for only the second time since she'd arrived in the beyond. "They were that bad, huh?"

"You don't even know the half of it," I replied as both of us turned to the four students in my initiation group as we broke through the tree line at the outskirts of the ancient Precursor city.

"Well," Tai wondered aloud, the last to break the undergrowth and see the sprawling ruins of the settlement before us. "It's definitely a city. And it definitely looks ancient. Think this is it?"

"Dunno, genius. You tell me," Val shot back mockingly.

"I was kidding, dude. I know this is it. How dumb d'you think I am?"

"You don't want me to answer that."

Gretchen and I both snickered, but opted not to chime in as I jumped up on a nearby rock and surveyed the ruins for a moment. "Let's focus, guys. No telling what we're gonna be running into in there."

"Don't be so dramatic," Tai said as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "There's no way there'd be anything we couldn't handle. You can't run a school if all your first-years bite it during initiation."

"Oh, you definitely just jinxed it. We're dead." Val grumbled.

Tai shrugged. "What? You think they'd send us in here without checking the place out first? I'm calling it. A couple of ursa, maybe the odd pack of beowolves. We're in, we're out, and back to the school before midafternoon."

"I wish I had your confidence," I said to Tai as I looked back from checking out the city. To everyone else, I pointed and added, "Looks like there's only one bridge left standing. That way. Let's go." I jumped down from my vantage point and took the lead as we headed south, along a rutted and uneven archaic cobblestone road that followed the edge of a fifty-meter-deep ravine that served as the western border of Ancient Vale. The bridge I'd seen was much more impressive up close, made completely of heavy, quarried stone blocks supported by massive, hewn granite crosspieces that had fared surprisingly well through the ages. Enormous iron gears built into the crumbling ruins of the old gatehouse on the far side still looked poised to hoist the bridge skyward at a moment's notice should some monster emerge from the vast forest on our side of the gorge.

The four of us stepped out onto the solid stone crossing, and I leaned out over the edge to take a look at the rapid, deep river that coursed through the chasm's bottom. There were huge, jagged rocks here and there that stood against the current, behind which dangerous eddies whirled like miniature maelstroms. "Don't fall," I cautioned sarcastically.

"Yeah, cliff-jumping to certain death isn't exactly on my bucket-list," Gretchen replied.

We made it across the bridge, scrambling over the fallen stones of a long-collapsed grand archway and stopped as we got our first close up look at what remained of what had probably been a once-great civilization. I marveled at the sight of the old kingdom, imagining what it may have looked like thousands of years ago to travelers and merchants who passed through this same gate. Now, of course, it was nothing but a maze of shattered buildings, streets barely discernable among fallen bricks and toppled columns, the ruins sprawling over the foothills and even part of the way up the slopes of the nearest eastern mountains. I was anxious, but did my best to tell myself that the feeling that I was being watched was only my imagination.

"Now all we have to do is figure out where the temple is," Val said as he looked around. "You don't suppose there's any signs, do you?"

"Yeah, don't think so. Professor Ozpin said it was in the center of the city. Guess we just have to push on." Turning to Tai, I asked, "How's the ankle holding up?"

"Eh," my teammate shrugged as we continued on. "Guess it's fine. My aura's been working on it, but this fancy little cast has been doing a pretty _solid_ job keeping it stable. Heh."

"Oh, no," Val grumbled after a pained mechanical facepalm.

"Was… Was that supposed to be a joke or something?" I asked Tai after a moment of confusion at Val's reaction.

"Pun, but close enough."

I raised my eyebrow, and Val groaned. "He does that sometimes. They're terrible."

"Oh, come on. That one wasn't my best work, I'll give you that," Tai said defensively. "Admit it though, sometimes I can really... Bring the house down." Tai held out his hands to indicate the collapsed walls and cracked foundation of the ancient residence through which we'd cut to reach the next street over, then looked to Val, Gretchen, and I for our responses.

"That's it. I'm gonna break his other leg," Val hauled back with his mechanical arm, balling his fist and aiming for Tai's right ankle, but Tai leapt away.

"I'm actually with Val on that one," Gretchen said. "Summer, you got any more of those casts in your little kit?"

"A couple. After that joke, though, I think we should just leave him here."

"Man, you guys have no sense of humor," Tai grumbled as he balanced a safe distance from Val's reach across the top of what remained of the stone palisade that had once surrounded a rear courtyard attached to back of the ruined building. The four of us exited what might've once been the back gate of the property onto what looked like a relatively clear, wide cobblestone street.

"Looks like one of the main roads. Bet this'll take us straight there."

"Worth a shot," Val said. "Kinda weird, right? We haven't seen a single grimm since crossing the bridge."

Tai raised his arms in an over-exaggerated shrug before backflipping off the wall to the street below. "What'd I say? The worst of it was back in the woods. What time is it? I bet we can still be back by… What the— _WHOA_!" Tai's shout of surprise caused the three of us to turn just in time to see the pile of loose rubble onto which he'd jumped explode outward and the snarling maw of a creep emerge. The creature lunged and snapped its jaws after Tai, missing only barely as the boy leapt away.

"I got it!" Gretchen called as she hauled back with her massive sword, ready to cleave the stubby head of the grimm straight from its broad, armored shoulders with a single swing. The monster hissed as it perceived the threat, however, and dove back down into the detritus, its tail flicking briefly through the air as it burrowed back to safety. "Dang it," Gretchen grunted, lowering her sword. "You good, Tai?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Just had to open your big mouth again, didn't you, Tai?" Val shot over to his friend.

"Careful." I cautioned. "Those things never…" I stopped mid-sentence as a chilling sound like the roars of dozens of grimm reverberated through the ground beneath our feet.

"Never what?" Val prompted, an uncharacteristically worried look crossing his typically happy-go-lucky features.

Before I could respond, the horrible roaring sound grew louder. Several heaps of broken stone not unlike the one the first creep had burst from moments before began to quiver violently all around us. That shaking grew more and more pronounced until one by one, the piles erupted and a growling, drooling horde of tenacious, two-legged creeps burst from the buried entrances of subterranean burrows and immediately began surrounding the group. "Never hunt alone," I finished finally, annoyedly wondering why I always had to be right about this kind of stuff.

"Well that's just great," Tai grumbled as more and more of the monsters surged from all around, seemingly vomited up by the very ground like gigantic black bipedal ants. Within seconds, no fewer than fifty of the creatures, each twice the size of a large dog, formed an unbroken ring of beady, soulless red eyes and black, snaggle-toothed jaws around the four of us. "Anyone got a plan?" My teammate asked, a note of apprehension evident in his voice.

"We've all fought these things before. Don't let them single you out." I scanned the writhing, roaring mass of grimm once again, looking for alphas. I didn't see any… And that worried me. "Back to back," I ordered, taking up a position beside Gretchen and Tai as the ring of gnashing teeth closed ever tighter, grimm jostling for position, each slobbering for the first bite of Beacon Initiate.

"We can't fight all these things, Summer," Gretchen cautioned me over her shoulder.

"'Course we can. Stick to the plan, stay together. This'll be easy." Secretly, I hoped nothing in my voice betrayed my own tense trepidation. That really was a lot of grimm. The creeps grew ever closer, slowly closing the distance bit by bit. Seconds ticked by before I started to realize something was off. Creeps were usually single-minded, charging rabidly into battle. These ones, however…

"It's like they're waiting for something," Gretchen's statement echoed my concern perfectly. "What could they—" Before she could finish speaking, her question was answered as the ancient cobbles between the four of us cracked apart and the huge, osseous crest of an alpha creep, four times the size of any of the other minor grimm, emerged effortlessly through the packed earth and ancient stone as if it were no more than wet sand. The beast gave a bellowing roar to announce its arrival as its powerful legs and tail propelled its armored bulk from the earth. The four of us dodged away… Straight towards the now-charging waves of minor creeps, our formation dashed and any semblance of a strategy we had thrown into utter disarray by the violent ambush.

We couldn't panic. The instant the grimm began to sense our fear, it would be all over, and I knew it. There was only one thing to do:

Kill.

Scourge snapped again and again as I side-armed it back and forth, filling the air in front of me with burning barbs that tore through an arc through the wall of grimm that fought to overwhelm me. Any of the creatures that managed to get inside my primary weapon's most effective range met a swift end at the edge of Thorn, but even so I was far from untouchable. At one point, a pair of creeps charged me from either side whilst I dealt with one directly to my front. One of them managed to catch the back of my leg with a strike from its powerful tail, knocking me off balance, before I flicked my wrist and caught it about the throat at close range with Scourge and burned its head from its body. The other managed to bite down on my armored right forearm, but the polished black titanium alloy of my bracer took the pressure and I slung the creature off onto its back, eviscerating it with a quick spin of Thorn's variable blade.

I had been working my way towards a height advantage in the ruined buildings beside the open street and, sensing my opening after another lash of Scourge successfully cleared a fleeting gap in the onslaught, leapt to the still-standing base of a nearby pillar. It was only a gain of about two meters, but at least now the grimm had to pile on top of each other, clawing and trampling over one other to get to me. I used the extremely brief respite to check the status of my companions before kicking a creep that got to close in the jaw and sending it toppling back down the mad scramble of vicious creatures. Val had extended a broad parabolic blade from within the forearm of his gauntlet, which he was using to great effect as he sliced and pummeled through anything that got too close. Tai, in like fashion, was doing as well as could be expected. If anything, he looked to be having fun, brawling his way through the chaos with an ear to ear grin spread across his face. At least one of us was enjoying themselves. Gretchen was doing well too, the wide arc of Quake cleaving easily through anything that dared come within reach… But she was in trouble and didn't yet know it.

The alpha creep was focused directly on her, crouched low in preparation to charge as it clawed the ground like a bull. My friend was occupied, battling through dozens of minor creeps to her front, and didn't see the imminent danger to her rear. The alpha was ten meters away from me. I could make that jump. I positioned myself as far back on the edge of the pillar as possible and focused as much aural energy as I could spare into my leg muscles. A single step into the lunge was all I could take from my limited purchase atop my perch, but it was enough to launch me far out over the battle below, leaving behind the minor creeps that had just began to snap at the top of the column.

The instant before the alpha would've begun its charge, I rolled out of my jump, face to hideous bony face with the monster. It paused, perhaps surprised that a meal would deliver itself so readily right to its jaws, before rearing back and striking. I sidestepped and spun to the left, managing a passing blow that glanced down the armor plates on the grimm's neck before Thorn caught in a chink and bit deep into the black flesh beneath. I had to roll away before following up on the strike when the alpha whirled on me, teeth snapping shut way too close for comfort. The good news, I thought as I recovered and gained some distance from the monster, was that Gretchen was no longer in danger of getting blindsided by a cunning, vicious creature the size of a truck. The bad news… I now had the undivided attention of a cunning, vicious creature the size of a truck.

The alpha creep clawed at the ground again with one of its twin taloned feet, issuing a hiss that grew into a snarl as it pressed towards me. The creature and I circled, testing each other, just like in the earlier encounter with the alpha beowolf in the forest. The only difference, I resolved, was that this grimm wasn't going to escape with it's life like the other had. Just as I closed back to within the range of my whip's full extension, however, I felt something. A tingle in the back of my neck: my aura alerting me to imminent danger.

Reflexively, I dodged right, just as a minor creep sailed over my shoulder from behind. The smaller creature landed clumsily, whipping around and tactlessly charging once again head on. A quick swing with Thorn ended the grimm, but the distraction proved just enough. My eyes snapped back to the much bigger threat… Too late. The alpha's heavily plated tail whipped around from the side, catching me full across the chest plate and sending me sailing back into the wall of an ancient building. The back of my head struck the heavy cornerstone of the partially obliterated structure hard, and I slid to the ground, my vision blurring as I saw my aura flicker a deep red across my whole body.

I didn't allow myself respite as I scrambled to my feet, blinking hard in an attempt to regain clear eyesight and cursing myself for letting the grimm get the better of me. Allowing my focus to become tunnel vision, being surprised by another threat, getting smoke-checked across the street… Rookie mistakes. I heard my father's voice in my head. _It happens. Get up, clear your zone, get back to work._ Yeah, noted. Thanks dad. My head felt like it'd been run over by a semi. I had a bigger problem, too. The alpha was now barreling towards me full-tilt, and I was cornered. My vision blurred again, worse this time as a wave of pain rolled through my skull, but I shook my head and blinked back the distraction again, readying myself to evade the charge. Wait for it. Wait… Now! I leapt to the side milliseconds before I would've been gored against the side of the building by the horned crest of the alpha creep. My leap however, much to my chagrin, became an uncoordinated stumble as my rattled senses turned what would've been a graceful escape to a flailing, fumbling fall. I was pelted by pulverized rock from the powerful impact behind me as I hit the ground and heard the angry rumble of the alpha's roar as it whirled through the cloud of dust to finish me off.

This was bad. I half kicked, half crawled my way backward, trying to get some distance, get an opportunity to roll away, anything. The alpha kept easily in pace though, walking slowly, almost seeming to savor its victory. Scourge had been knocked from my hand when the alpha had struck. I could see it in the street, meters away. The alpha lunged to seize my leg in its jaws, but I thrust myself backward with a hard kick to force the strike to miss and retaliated with a desperate thrust of Thorn. The lucky strike jabbed into the monster's open maw, not enough to cause as serious wound, but definitely enough to piss it off. Black blood mixed with foul drool spattered everywhere as the alpha reared back, roaring in pain and anger. The grimm crouched, ready to leap forward and finish me off. The instant before it would have, however, a battle-cry and streak of blonde hair heralded the arrival of my hot-headed teammate.

I saw Tai somersault forward, jamming both of his concussive tonfas into the ground as he did to fire himself into an explosive-driven handspring towards the alpha just as it began to turn its head in response to the new threat. Before the monster could react to dodge or snap at the incoming initiate, Tai threw a vicious, mid-air right cross that connected with the alpha's stubby snout and triggered his weapon to unleash another thunderous blast. The force of the explosion slammed the alpha's head against what still stood of the heavy masonry of the wall beside it, sending chips of stone flying. At the same instant, my new teammate expertly aimed and timed a follow-up blast with his left tonfa in the opposite direction, the near-simultaneous recoil of the two shots whipping him three hundred and sixty degrees as he continued to sail forward. As he completed the spin, I saw Tai's leg cock back like the hammer of some enormous revolver, a halo of golden energy forming around his knee like a mach-cone as he fired a flying knee-spear that struck forth with such tremendous power into the head of the alpha as it rebounded from striking the wall that the its thick, bony skull shattered like an egg. Black, sooty vapor exploded outward from the beast's obliterated head as a quick backflip off the wall redirected Tai's momentum and he landed back in the street, the corpse of the alpha evaporating quickly before him.

Standing and jogging over, he leaned against the wall in front of me and grinned. "I know, I know. Don't do that again, you had it under control…" He sighed exaggeratedly. "Y'know, you and I need to stop meeting like this." A straggling minor creep, one of the last remaining, charged him as he spoke, which he nonchalantly dispatched with a simple backstroke of one of his tonfas.

I squinted through my massive headache and shot a dry look back at him from the ground. He extended his hand, which I accepted, taking hold of his wrist and half-stumbling, half-sailing to my feet as he effortlessly yanked me off the ground. "Thanks," I said after a moment of steadying myself against the near wall.

"Alpha tagged you pretty good, huh?"

"Almost burned out my aura. Thought I was a goner till you showed up."

"Yeah, well, can't have my teammate dying during initiation. Wouldn't look too good on my combat and mission records."

"Ohhh, gotcha. Just looking after your stats, huh? Well, now I feel special." I couldn't help but grin at the remark, despite my near-death being the subject of the joke.

Gretchen and Val trotted up just about then too, having finished off the last of the now directionless minor grimm together seconds before. "That got pretty messy for a minute there," Gretchen grinned as she handed me Scourge. "But, nobody died. Yay us, right?"

"Yay, us," I said as I raised an unenthusiastic fist and halfheartedly pumped it once in mock celebration. A thought occurred to me then, however, that caused me to perk up. "So, hang on a sec. Have any of you ever heard of grimm coordinating around the commands of an alpha like that?"

"Mmm-mm."

"Nah."

"Can't say I have," Gretchen confirmed lastly.

"Me neither. That big creep almost got the better of us. Would've got me too, if Tai hadn't saved my bacon."

"Yeah, I saw you take that hit," Gretchen replied. "Why'd you take the alpha on alone? All four of us couldn't even handle the last alpha we ran into."

"It almost charged you. You were dealing with a bunch of the little ones and it was about two seconds from taking you out. I got its attention and, well, you saw what happened after that."

Gretchen nodded equivocally as she considered it. "Hm. Yeah, no that's a… That's a pretty good reason, I guess. Don't do that again though. You might not get so lucky next time."

"I don't think I'd call that luck," someone remarked from nearby. Tai, Val, Gretchen and I each snapped our attention to the alleyway from which the new voice had spoken. I knew who it was, even before Qrow's lanky frame stepped out from around the corner and into view.

"Qrow. How long have you been there?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest plate and making no effort to mask the distrust in my voice.

"Couple seconds. Heard the commotion from a few blocks away and headed straight here."

Raven exited a partially collapsed doorway from the building adjacent the alley as her brother spoke. "Looks like you all had the situation well in hand, though," she added.

"What do you want?" I grumbled at the two of them, my suspicion doubling with the arrival of Qrow's sister.

"You'd think it'd be kind of obvious. We're here to team up," Raven replied evenly.

I shared a look with Gretchen before turning back to the twins. "I'm not sure that's a good idea, after that conversation yesterday," I replied. "I'm betting you and I would have pretty different definitions of the word 'Teamwork'."

"Oh, I don't doubt it," Raven agreed. "I would think that's irrelevant now, since we all have the same job here, but if you don't want our help…" Raven's voice trailed off as she shrugged and turned away. A second later, however, she turned back. "Oh, I guess I should warn you though. Have any of you been to the temple yet?"

"Not yet. Been a little busy dealing with every creep in the city," Val answered.

"Creeps, huh? Well, if those little things gave you so much trouble, have fun dealing with the herd of goliaths Qrow and I saw up there. C'mon Qrow."

Tai raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Goliaths?"

"Whole herd," Qrow confirmed as he turned to leave with his sister.

"Hold up. Hold up." Val waved his exo arm to stop the twins from leaving. "I dunno what your problem is with each other," he said as he indicated both me and the Branwens, "But if there's any more grimm between us and the temple we're gonna need all the help we can get. Especially if it's goliaths we're dealing with." Tai nodded his assent, and Gretchen looked at me with a shrug.

I was outvoted, apparently, and finally sighed my assent. "Alright. Alright. Fine. Let's just go."

The six of us began to head out, passing close by the gaping hole from which the alpha had surfaced at the beginning of our fight with the pack of creeps. Gretchen stopped at the precipice, looking down into the burrow as if she was wondering about something she saw inside. "Guys. Look at this real quick."

"What's up?" Val asked as he headed over to his teammate, with the rest of the group right behind him.

"Down there. Do those… Do those look like manmade stones? Like some kind of tunnel?" Gretchen pointed down to deep within the hole, and I followed her finger with my eyes to almost where the walls of the burrow disappeared into darkness. Sure enough, I saw the packed earth give way to layers of precisely hewn stone bricks, the support structure of some ancient subterranean tunnel that seemed to run the same direction as the wide main street upon which we now stood.

"Sewer system. These Precursors had functioning underground waste removal networks long before any of the modern kingdoms managed to develop anything like it." It was Val who spoke, and Gretchen and I both looked questioningly at him in response to his unexpected historical knowledge.

"Nerd," Tai jabbed.

"I had an expensive private education when I was younger," Val grumbled defensively. "Always liked history. Helped me imagine being anywhere _but_ my family's mansion."

"Oh, poor you. Must be hard, growing up rich," Raven remarked snidely.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be, believe me," Val shot back. "That tunnel down there is probably part of that network. It's never been fully explored, but archaeologists think it probably spans this whole city. About a thousand years ago, the ancient kingdom of Vale made efforts to re-inhabit and rebuild this old city. This place would've _been_ Vale today, if it hadn't all gone wrong."

"Gone wrong?" My ears perked up and I felt the back of my neck grow hot as I shared another look with Gretchen. "What happened?"

"No one can really say. Records from then all disagree. Some say grimm, some say plague… They all have a common theme though. Something about this place drove people insane."

My mind again flashed to the scene of me, sitting in my father's lap beside Kyrin and the other tribespeople at the fireside in the gathering tent. Red Wolf's eyes as he spoke about how the voices in the ruins almost caused him to lose his mind. _No way,_ I thought. Even more evidence that the old chief had been telling the truth.

My focus was jerked back to the moment when Qrow put up his hand. "I'm gonna stop you right there, man. The history lesson is _fascinating._ Really. But how does _any_ of this help us?"

"I was getting there, hold your horses. So back then, this sewer system quickly became the main highway for smugglers and thieves. A massive criminal empire developed in the tunnels and cisterns beneath the city, whilst reconstruction efforts continued above. Accounts say you could get anywhere within the walls completely unseen from in there. Led to thieves sometimes being called 'pissfoots' for the way their boots would always be soaked through with whatever ended up in the sewers."

"Gross," Gretchen inserted with disgust.

"And…" Raven prompted impatiently, "You were getting to how this helps us?"

"The three huge aqueducts that fed the city and by extension, the sewers, fed straight into the temple from a snowmelt lake deep in the Andarians. The people of Ancient Vale were really religious, and no faith was more prevalent than the Acolyte of the Brother Gods. It was fitting, then, that once the aqueducts were repaired, all the city's life-giving water flowed from the temple that honored the Creator-Brothers. Our objective."

"You're saying we could follow this tunnel straight to the temple without the goliaths noticing?" Tai asked.

"Yeah. There were no pumping stations back then, so everything had to be run by gravity. If we make sure that every turn we take follows and upward grade, we'll reach the spot where some of the inflow from the aqueduct was split off to feed the sewers, right at the center of the city. Should be right beneath the temple itself."

"You're talking like we agreed to this already," Raven said.

"We almost died fighting what came out of there a few minutes ago. Now you want to go in?" Gretchen asked, equally skeptical.

"I didn't say that. I just said it might work," Val replied. "But if there's goliaths between us and the temple on the surface, this might be our only real option."

I thought for a moment before pitching in, "My aura's coming back up, but I think we should still try to avoid any more fights if we can. It's worth a shot."

"I'm down. If it means skipping a fight with a dozen monsters the size of small buildings, it could be perfect," Qrow voted.

"Let's do it," Tai agreed. "No way whatever we might run into down there could be harder to kill than goliaths. I've never even heard of someone taking even one of those things down, let alone a whole herd."

Raven and Gretchen both rolled their eyes, with Gretchen adding an exasperated sigh. "Alright. Well, when we're running for our lives through the dark from another pack of creeps or beos or whatever, don't say I didn't call it."

"Who wants to go first?" Tai asked.

"I got it," I replied, extending Thorn's dagger form just as I had for my landing strategy and leaping into the hole without any further ado. My short blade slowed my descent into the utter blackness of the ancient tunnel, and moments later when the exit dug by the alpha gave way to the open sewer system I yanked my weapon from the dirt and braced, unsure of how far I'd be falling. A breathless three meters later, and my feet struck stone in the pitch darkness. I rolled out of the fall, weapons held at the ready in case I were jumped by some unseen threat. To my relief, the sewer was dead quiet, and I whistled up to the faces I saw peering over the edge of the hole. One by one, the other five members of my group landed in the gloom next to me.

"Who has a light?" Qrow asked from somewhere to my left.

"I do," I replied as I dug blindly through my little survival kit, eventually finding and retrieving a small but powerful penlight.

"'Course you do," Tai said as I clicked the light on, revealing the bare, ancient pavers and brick walls of the tunnel. "What _don't_ you have in that little kit of yours?"

I shrugged. "Snacks."

The response drew a snicker from both Gretchen and Val, and I could've sworn that in the dim illumination outside the direct cone of my flashlight's beam I saw Raven crack a slight smile too. I chalked that up to a trick of the light as the six of us headed off down the tunnel, occasionally passing the beginnings of burrows the creeps from earlier had used to dig up to the street from the sewer network.

Val had been right about the slight grade as we headed up the passageway towards the center of the city. It'd be imperceptible to anyone who wasn't paying attention, but just barely clear enough if you were really looking for it. The tunnel system went on for seemingly forever, every step of that eternity we took slowly and cautiously in an effort to minimize the echo of our footfalls and listen intently for sounds that would indicate the presence of more subterranean grimm. Fortunately, we heard nothing. The only signs of life in these tunnels were the rats that scurried away down into the dark or off through offshoot tunnels ahead of us, and the cobwebs that hung here and there, some large enough to need to be brushed aside as we followed the slope towards our objective. It wasn't long before I'd completely lost track of our path through this maze as we followed the grade through twists and turns so numerous it truly would've taken an experienced pissfoot to navigate effectively. I hoped fervently that we wouldn't have to beat a hasty retreat out the way we'd come… We'd never find our way out.

After what seemed like hours but was probably only minutes, the tunnel broke out into a large, round room like some kind of underground rotunda, with a drainage grate high in the center of the ceiling through which natural afternoon light shone. The beam of sunshine was a welcome change from the pale, too-white glow of my flashlight, which I clicked off as we stopped.

"Cistern," Val said simply. "Probably used to be the headquarters of some crime syndicate or another back in the day."

"Cut the history lesson out this time. Which way?" Qrow asked impatiently.

"Whichever way is uphill. There were seven of these cisterns if I remember right, each with one inflow and six outs. Those seven inflows were the direct line to the main reservoir beneath the temple." The six of us split off to check the tunnels spaced evenly about the walls of the room, meeting back up on the far side from our entry point.

Tai shrugged. "None of these really look like they head uphill."

"I can't tell either," Gretchen agreed. Several of the others nodded their assent as well.

"We need some way to check. Anyone got a canteen? We could pour some of it out at each tunnel entrance and see which way it flows." Everyone except Raven shook their heads at my query, with the elder Branwen twin staring dryly at her brother as he gestured his denial.

"Cough it up, Qrow," Raven ordered after he noticed his sister's look.

"What? Nuh-uh. I'm going to need it after this stupid initiation," Qrow insisted. To that, Raven's look only intensified as she narrowed her eyes and leaned in threateningly. "Dammit. Fine. For the benefit of the group, not because of that stupid 'alpha-female' thing you're trying to do right now with that stupid look," He said, apparently fully aware that she wouldn't take no for an answer for whatever it was that she wanted him to forfeit. To my surprise, the seventeen-year-old boy reached into his shirt and pulled a brand-new, silvery hip flask out from some unseen pocket inside the garment. "I'd better get that back," he grumbled as Raven wordlessly snatched it from him and turned back to me. This time, she really was grinning, like depriving her brother of his booze brought her genuine mirth.

"I'm guessing there's no drinking age wherever you guys are from?" Gretchen asked.

"Outside the walls, the law is what you make it, City-girl." Raven said simply as she moved over to the nearest tunnel entrance and twisted off the cap of Qrow's flask. I heard the same aggressively-indifferent note in her voice as she'd had during our argument in the cafeteria and pursed my lips in irritation, sharing the look with Gretchen. Raven didn't see the exchange and poured a liberal amount of the liquid out just inside the tunnel, watching it intently for a moment. "Nope," she said, smirking back at Qrow and moving to the next sewer passage. "Nope," came her voice again, much to her brother's growing irritation. "Nope… Nope… Oh, here we go. Maybe. C'mere," Raven finally said as she waved the group over to one of the seven identical arched tunnel exits.

As we reached her, she poured out another long stream of the liquor before Qrow snatched the flask back in protest. He shook it to listen if there was any more of the powerful-smelling liquor inside before putting it to his lips and tilting it back. I watched as his face twisted into a disgusted scowl as he did, pulling the flask away from his mouth and holding it upside down, shaking it to emphasize its emptiness. "I hate you," Qrow grumbled to his sister, who shrugged.

"Stuff stinks like paint thinner anyway. I'm doing you a favor," she said before indicating the track of the liquid as it rolled back towards the cistern instead of off down the tunnel. "Looks like we found our route. Let's go." Again, we headed off, and I clicked my light back on as we descended back into the utter darkness of the inflow passageway.

Thankfully, there were no more confusing turns from that point on. The way was arrow-straight as we headed off, and we picked up our pace a little knowing that we still had to get back before sundown. The cobwebs that had hung down here and there before had begun to increase in number too, I noticed, becoming denser and more frequent the further we went. Though I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not, it started to seem that the individual strands of webbing themselves became thicker, springy to the touch and more and more difficult break through with a simple wave of the hand like the others had been.

"I swear, if we start running into a ton of spiders down here, I'm heading right back out the way we came," Tai grumbled.

I looked over my shoulder at him in disbelief. "You'll go head to head with an alpha beowolf _and_ alpha creep like you were born to do it, but you're scared of spiders?

"No, I just… Look, don't judge me. Just don't like 'em, is all. Like, imagine being a bug. Caught up in a web, defenseless while some freakin' creature wraps you up even more and pumps you full of venom so it can suck your guts out like a smoothie while your still alive later. Freaks me out."

Qrow and Val both snickered. "Don't worry, Tai," the latter of the two boys jibed. "I'll keep you safe from the creepy-crawlies."

"Shuddup, Val. You're scared of snakes."

"Am not!" Val objected, clearly defensive about the topic.

"Guys. Look." I shone my flashlight down the tunnel. The ever-so-slight grade of our path sloped sharply up about fifty meters ahead. Almost the entire way was thick with webbing, but there was definitely natural light filtering down from where the passageway rose out of sight.

"Must be the end of the line. That slope is probably what gave the water that came through here enough of a flow rate to—"

"Yeah, fascinating stuff, but don't we have a schedule to keep or something?" Qrow interrupted. Val glared at him but didn't respond. "C'mon. Let's get out of these tunnels," the Branwen brother said as he pushed past the group to take the lead. As he did, a rat scurried off with a squeak of fear as it avoided his stride, only to get caught up in the matted mess of web that blocked its path a few meters off. As we watched, a shadow cast by my flashlight against the webs ahead danced through the sticky trap towards the stricken rodent. The shape to which the shadow belonged slowed, and I could make out eight jet-black legs with grasping talons at the ends, each supporting the lean, recluse-like body of a small grimm widower. The chicken-sized monster hissed before leaping onto the catch, spinning it with its back legs and expelling a thick weave of silk before chomping down with its four mandible-like fangs. The rat gave one more muffled shriek from inside its cocoon, twitched once, and was still.

"What'd I say? Spiders. No, worse. Grimm spiders. I'm out. You guys can deal with that," Tai turned to head back to the cistern, but stopped cold. "Oh… crap. Guys?" I turned to see what was panicking about. In the gloom behind us, I saw not one set, not two, but hundreds of sets of glowing red eyes dotted the darkness, each of which I knew belonged to a widower. My arm swung around and I illuminated the passage behind us to the terrifying new threat that must've been stalking us since we entered the main inflow tunnel from the cistern. The creatures stopped, hissing in unison in response to the light, the closest ranks among them backing up slightly. Some of the larger ones in the group, up to half the size of the creeps we'd faced, reared up on their back legs and clacked their fangs together threateningly.

"Run!" I shouted. Keeping the light pointed to the rear in my right hand as I drew Scourge with my left, I pushed the rest of the group past me down the tunnel and whipped the braid in an underhand motion back towards the deadly mass of armored spiders. The first few rows of widowers evaporated with the arc of flaming plasma that crackled from the emitters, but more simply took their place as the creatures gave chase. I ran to follow my group, lashing out several more desperate times as the horde scuttled after me. It didn't take long, however, before I heard the telltale fizzle and pop that signaled the complete expenditure of my burn reservoir. Cursing my rotten luck, I switched to shock dust, but that reservoir burned out after a few moments as well, having nearly been depleted in the battle against the creeps. Ice dust was my last option, an option I rarely used because of how intense the effects of the freeze blast could be. Given the circumstances, however, now was as good a time as any. I hit my selector and spun on my heel, snapping Scourge emphatically over my shoulder and down. Rather than the familiar arc dancing from emitter to emitter before crackling into my target, the barbs glowed a pale blue along their contacts. The level indicator on the selector dropped instantaneously to empty, and I felt the dank warmth of the sewer sucked away as the massive charge of near-absolute-zero dust supercooled the air to well below freezing.

Every molecule of water in the air nearby skipped the liquid state completely and froze outward from Scourge's point of impact in a powerful wave of directed deposition, forming massive frozen spikes that extended violently and slammed through the walls and vaulted ceiling of the tunnel as they grew. Brick began to fall as the tunnel shivered from the impact, and cracks appeared at the points of puncture from the ice spikes that spread rapidly overhead. A chunk of brick caught my shoulder as I turned to escape the cave-in. The rest of the group was already several meters ahead of me, with Val leading the way as he sliced through the ever-thicker webs with that retractable blade on his forearm. More rock and brick bounced against my mostly-regenerated aura as I struggled to catch up, and I could taste the dust in the air threatening to clog my throat with every breath.

We reached the incline at the end of the tunnel and I slipped when my foot caught a chunk of fallen brick in my scramble up the forty-five-degree slope. I caught myself, but my flashlight fell from my grip and rolled down the incline, its light disappearing in seconds beneath tons of falling stone and dirt. What was worse, I felt myself sliding down too, the loose dust that coated the flow ramp turning my clamber up to safety into a near-impossibility. I extended Thorn, jamming it into the brick and hauling myself up desperately, one arm-length at a time as neither my feet or other hand could find real purchase. Finally, I made it to the top, throwing myself through the opening and down to the floor of the central cistern about a meter below. I coughed from having inhaled what seemed like a lung full of that dust in my mad sprint towards safety, my throat clear enough after a moment to look up and assess the team. "Everyone okay?" I croaked, coughing one last time as I stood straight.

"Barely," Tai grumbled, massaging a bruise on his neck.

Everyone else nodded or gave thumbs up before standing and taking stock of our situation. Light filtered in from heavy, stylized iron grates located in a radiating pattern around the ceiling of the room in which we now found ourselves, a dry subterranean reservoir easily four times the size of the earlier cistern. In the center of the open space, a ring of massive columns stood that almost seemed to shimmer in the rays of light that shone in from above. It was strangely beautiful in a way, mesmerizing, even… But that was before I realized exactly what was causing the dazzling reflection from the surface of the columns. Each pillar was in fact coated bottom to top with layer upon layer of dense spider silk. The sinister sticky trap covered the entire ceiling of the reservoir, all the way over our heads and down the surrounding walls.

"Well… There's always a chance we killed all the widowers in the cave-in, right?" Val asked hopefully. As if in response, a chilling hiss sounded from somewhere in the center of the room, amidst the connecting arches of the seven pillars.

"I'm gonna go ahead and say no," Qrow said as a dark shape that had remained motionless between the tops of the pillars following our emergence into its lair shifted. Our eyes snapped to the movement just as the first of eight enormous legs, each the width of Tai's torso, appeared from the shadows one by one. Talons on the end of each limb gripped the silk-strewn ceiling, pulling behind them the grotesque, nine-eyed head and bulbous, bloated body of a king widower. The terrifying creature, twice the size of the alpha creep and the third monstrous alpha grimm we'd had the unfortunate luck of running into today stared unblinkingly at the six dirty, web-covered and exhausted teenagers before it. It clicked its fangs once or twice before letting out a bloodcurdling shriek and charging across the ceiling with terrifying speed for a creature of its size.


	7. Chapter 7: Initiation (Part III)

**Chapter 7: Initiation (Part 3)**

"Where are you two going!? We need to stick together!" I shouted at the Branwens as Raven and Qrow both turned to abandon the team and sprint around the perimeter of the reservoir, away from the group and angry giant spider.

"Interesting word choice," Gretchen said from my right as the twins stopped and looked at each other, apparently debating wordlessly regarding their odds of survival with and without the whole team. Before they could either continue their flight or return, the widower turned off of us to focus on the two lone initiates. I watched as its abdomen twisted completely around while its head and legs stayed inverted and clung to the ceiling. The gruesome contortion exposed the black, soft underside of the creature. In a move so quick no one could react, the grimm's bloated back end contracted and pulsed once, shooting a line of silk the thickness of my wrist from its spinnerets straight for the pair of initiates. Qrow dodged out of the way, but the stream of webbing caught his sister about the ankle as she turned to run back to the group as well.

"Dammit, Qrow!" Raven shouted, as if she blamed her brother for her current predicament.

"Cut the string!" I shouted to her as the back four legs of the widower twisted around in the same disconcerting manner as the monster's abdomen and began to reel Raven in, dragging her along the ground and then up towards the reach of its grasping claws. Whether or not she'd heard me, I didn't know, but she drew her sword just as she reached the creature's legs and it began to wrap her in a dense, wide net of immobilizing silk. A lightning quick strike with her weapon's bright-red blade severed the ensnarement and the tip of one of the monster's legs at the last second before she would've been completely enveloped. The grimm screeched in pain and retreated a few meters along the ceiling as Raven fell, landing hard on her back with her legs completely encased in a thick cocoon of webbing. Her sword clattered across the ground out of reach and she coughed, the wind driven out of her.

I led the charge as the other five of us rushed to Raven's position. We had almost reached her as she sat upright and began struggling to tear through the silk that bound her legs with her bare hands, issuing a string of profanities as she did. The spider had begun to move back in, eager to finish the job, but Tai and Qrow both began firing wildly at it. Concussive eight-gauge slugs from my teammate's golden tonfas and dust-infused frangible buckshot from Curse's double barrels caught its vulnerable underbelly and drove the monster back, and it retreated with a hiss around to the relative safety of the back side of the structural colonnade in the center of the room. "Cover me," I said to the other four members of the group as I slid in from my dead sprint to Raven's side.

"What are you doing?" The twin snapped as I recovered and knelt by her.

"Shut up and hold still," I shot back, Thorn snapping into a full extension in my right hand. A single, clean slice rent the silk securing her legs, and Gretchen kicked the crimson-bladed no-dachi back from where it had come to rest moments before. Raven snatched the hilt of her weapon, sheathing it as she stood. "You're welcome," I grumbled in response to the venomous glare she gave me before moving back to her brother's side.

"We need to get out of here. That thing'll be back." Gretchen pointed out. As if it had heard her, the king widower reappeared, racing along the outer wall of the reservoir. Tai and Qrow's ranged weapons did nothing to slow its charge this time, with its armored dorsal carapace shrugging off the blasts like chaff thrown at the side of a barn.

"Any last-ditch ideas before we die?" Qrow shouted over his shoulder as he jammed extra rounds one by one into the two circular magazines that surrounded Curse's axial mechanics.

"Head's up!" Val shouted. I saw his metal fist swivel down on a pivot at his wrist, and a short, heavy barrel telescope out from within his weapon's forearm. He knelt and fired, a glowing fireball the size of a melon flashing past the spider's head. The monster paused just as it had almost reached us, and I could've sworn its rattling hiss sounded like spidery laughter.

"You missed! How could you MISS!?" Tai shouted.

"No I didn't!" Tai shouted back as the six of us retreated back towards the center of the reservoir and away from the wall-crawling grimm. The shot from his arm had indeed not struck the widower, impacting instead into one of the ornate grates in the ceiling. The thick iron vaporized at the point of impact and was left twisted and glowing around the edges of a gaping hole that led out to street level. "That's our exit!"

"You couldn't have aimed it, oh you know, a bit closer?" Raven chastised.

"Not helpful, Raven!" I shouted, narrowly dodging another stream of silk as the widower attempted to snag one of us before we got out of range.

"Shut up! I can get us out of here. We just need to get either me or Qrow out to street level. Would've been easier if the hole wasn't way the hell over there!"

"Might've said something earlier, then!" Val responded with equal vitriol. "Alright. Raven, Tai, C'mere! The rest of you, cover us!" The widower had leapt off of the wall and was now on the ground, pursuing us to the center of the reservoir. Gretchen, Qrow and I positioned ourselves between Val, Raven, and Tai and the incoming danger.

"Fastball!" I heard Val shout to Tai, who grinned.

"Got it! Raven, head for the hole, and when you hear me yell 'jump', I _need_ you in the air!" Raven nodded at Tai's instruction, the first cooperative action I think I'd seen her take yet as she sprinted off towards the break in the grated ceiling.

"Qrow, block for her!" I ordered Raven's brother. His leap away was all the assent I needed, and I again focused on the widower. The monster was now dangerously close, it's seven remaining sets of claws clanking against the cobbles as it sped towards us. I rolled left as Gretchen went right, outflanking the creature. Though Scourge had no dust charge remaining, I still used it to capture one of the monster's legs, forcing it to turn away from Tai and Val back towards me. The barbs of my main weapon caught between one of the creature's leg segments and I yanked, severely damaging the joint as my weapon pulled free. The monster shrieked with rage and agony once again and tried to rush me, but its wounded leg couldn't take the weight of its own swollen body and the segment snapped backward as its bulk slammed into the ground as if its leg hadn't even been there at all. The creature flailed about as it tried to find its footing on its remaining legs, the segment I damaged hanging on by only a few tendons. Handspringing back to the monster's front, I lashed out again as it plucked itself off the ground, ripping Scourge across the creature's face and tearing out four of its eyes with a single stroke.

From the grimm's other flank, Gretchen pressed her attack and clove another of its rear legs completely off, leaving it now with but five of its appendages and sending it into a frenzy. The monster lashed out with the adjacent leg from the one that had just been severed and Gretchen was kicked across the ground before she could deliver the backstroke with Quake. With that threat temporarily neutralized the spider scuttled towards me as fast as its remaining limbs could take it, just as I saw Val haul back and throw Tai like a man-sized baseball as the latter braced his feet and weapons in the palm of his friend's mechanical hand.

"Jump!" I heard Tai shout to Raven as he blasted off of Val's metal palm with his tonfas, rocketing on a perfectly straight trajectory for the gaping hole in the iron grate. Raven leapt and met him in midair, and I saw Tai grab her wrists, somersaulting to fling the black-haired girl over his shoulders and effectively transferring his incredible momentum to her before my view of the boy's 'fastball' maneuver was blocked entirely by the rearing giant grimm barley two meters to my front. I did the only thing I could do, having been backed up against one of the web-covered pillars in the center of the room—I charged. The monster's fangs struck forth, but I rolled beneath the attack to deliver a slash to the underside of its thorax and abdomen with Thorn. Emerging behind the now gravely wounded creature, I leapt out of range of any counter attack and prepared to re-engage, whirling back on my adversary.

To my surprise, the widower didn't turn to attack again. Instead, it began crawling pitifully away, leaving a trail of rapidly evaporating black blood as it retreated to the area between the pillars. I noticed then, however, something I'd missed before in the shadows beneath the ringed colonnade. A pool of midnight-black liquid, the like of which I'd never seen nor my dad had ever mentioned, filling a recess hewn into the floor at the dead center of the room. The widower dragged itself straight into the foul fluid, over the precipice and down, disappearing beneath the thick, syrupy sludge. As I watched, the surface of the pool grew deathly still… Before suddenly boiling forth again as the widower, fully healed from its wounds, emerged with a blood-curdling screech. All nine of its glowing eyes glared straight at me as the thick black substance dripped from its face and mandibles, and all eight of its legs appeared very much whole and undamaged as it again charged.

I turned and sprinted away from the regenerated grimm, hoping that whatever Raven had planned to affect our escape, she was prepared to make it happen _now._ I saw her dangling by one hand from the grate, struggling to hang on as she tried to pull herself up. Her hand slipped, and I thought we were doomed… But at the last second, an arm reached through the hole punched by Val's cannon blast and caught her by the wrist, pulling her up and out to street level. For a split second, nothing happened, and I thought she'd abandoned all of us. It was just as she said. She was going to take care of 'number one'. Suddenly however, a strange red flash over by Qrow caught my attention. The boy was waving his arm, calling the four others in our group towards a pulsating crimson ellipse that hung in the air beside him. "Let's go! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" I heard him shout. Tai, Val, Gretchen and I all headed full tilt towards the strange phenomenon. Tai reached it first, hesitating for a split second before Qrow shoved him into the shimmering shape. My teammate disappeared, and a crazy thought occurred to me to explain his disappearance—The glowing ellipsis was a rift. A portal, presumably opened by Raven herself up at street level. As if to confirm my wild theory, I saw Tai waving at us to hurry from the hole in the grate above. Good enough for me.

Val and Gretchen both dove through the gateway, which had begun to flicker, as if its connection were weakening. I could hear the widower's shriek behind me, so close I could almost smell the venom dripping from its quadruple fangs as they clacked together, hungry for revenge for the stroke I'd dealt it. Qrow leapt through the portal a split second before I followed, finding myself instantly bathed in mid-afternoon sunlight as I tripped over the boy at the base of the temple's marble stairs. I rolled off of Qrow onto my back, in time to see the spider's first four legs and armored thorax emerge from the threshold of the rift in hot pursuit. Before it could pull itself further, the portal dissipated with a strange, reverberating hum, and the widower was sundered in two by our collapsing escape route. Its screeching hiss died to a pathetic, wheezing whisper and each of its legs twitched disgustingly before the half-corpse of the monster evaporated on the breeze.

I looked around. Raven was doubled over, sweat beading on her face at the strain of holding what I could only assume had been her semblance for so long. Beside her stood two girls I didn't recognize, to one of whom I presumed the hand that had caught Raven belonged.

"Well, that was fun," Val said as he pulled Qrow and then me to our feet. No sooner had he spoken, however, then a new sound shook the ground around us. I recognized instantly the thunderous, trumpeting roars made by only one type of creature… Goliaths. The whole herd of the elephant-like monsters about which Raven and Qrow had warned us appeared just then, crashing right through what remained of the walls surrounding the circular temple grounds as if the brick and mortar were naught but paper.

"What the—COME _ON_!" Tai shouted. "Can't we get a break for like five seconds?"

"Get inside the temple!" I yelled in response. Pushing Qrow ahead of me, I sprinted up three steps at a time to reach the towering building to our front. The seven pillars beneath us in the reservoir were continued here, forming the main support structure of what must've once been a beautiful building. I didn't have time to marvel, however, as the eight of us sprinted past the massive pillars and through the tall but narrow doorway in the interior rotunda-like temple. The single room was plain and bare, any extravagant decorations probably having been stripped by looters centuries before. Around the interior floorspace, however, were about twenty-five short stone pedestals. Upon each, there sat what appeared to be just a collection of random items. The broken blade of a great-war era sword, a compass, an old map, all sorts of junk.

"What the heck is all this?" Qrow wondered aloud. Before anyone could answer, the entire building shook from the impact of a charging goliath.

"Who cares!? Just grab something, stupid!" Raven shouted at her brother.

I didn't wait to see what he took, instead turning and reaching for the broken sword blade on the pedestal nearest me. Showing our 'relic' to Tai, my partner nodded, and I drew Scourge. Reaching back with my other hand, I placed the blade against small of my back, which clanked securely into place against the vacant mag-plate as more and more powerful impacts began to cause stone to crumble from high over our heads. The temple didn't have long, that much was clear. "Back door!" Gretchen shouted, with the compass I'd seen on another pillar swinging by a chain about her neck as he turned to run. We dashed out into the open just as the temple began to implode, the dome falling straight down and the buttressed colonnade collapsing in on itself. A massive cloud of dust arose from the obliterated stone as thousands of tons of masonry punched through the temple grounds, crumbling down into the reservoir beneath. I stopped to look but scrambled immediately back around to continue my dead sprint when I saw the goliaths that had brought the building down burst through the haze barely fifty meters behind us.

"Keep going!" I shouted. Even I could hear the panic in my voice. Each member of the group leapt over the wall easily… Except for one of the two girls we'd encountered just outside the temple, who simply phased right through it at a dead sprint as if it weren't even there. While the ability was seriously cool, I didn't have time to admire it. The wall exploded outward behind us as we continued to run and the armored skulls of the goliaths came charging through. I got my first ever good look over my shoulder at one of the creatures just then, a monster I'd only seen defeated once in a grainy scroll-vid taken of my father during his defense of the town we'd lived in at the time. The beasts looked harmless enough from a distance, to be sure. From this close, however, they were truly terrifying. Ten meters tall at least, covered in armored plate and a hide tougher than your typical grimm, they towered over us as we ran as fast as we could away. Their powerful legs didn't even have to churn that hard to keep pace, with each stride of theirs making up for twenty of ours.

"We're not gonna make it!" Qrow shouted to me as we turned onto a broad main street.

"Shut up! We'll make it!" I shot back. The last thing I needed right then was some of that trademark Branwen negativity. I caught sight of other initiates, some in pairs, others in groups of four or six, that had made it to the city and were approaching the temple. I waved them off, but I think it was more the sight of what pursued us that caused them to scatter, rather than my insistent shouts to run. Chancing a look back, I realized that some of the goliaths had gone charging through what remained of the ruined buildings after other students. Only three were still doggedly thundering down the street after my group, braying and trumpeting in a terrifying cacophony that seemed to reverberate through our very bones.

The city certainly seemed a lot smaller from the surface. That was probably because we were getting the full tour at a dead sprint for our lives, making a bee-line for the border rather than silently and slowly picking our way through the subterranean labyrinth beneath our feet. It actually wasn't long before we caught sight of the gorge on the western city limits, barely a kilometer out from the crest of the rise we'd just topped. "Almost there!" Tai called.

"You have a weird definition of 'almost'," Raven shouted in response.

"Get into the ruins!" Gretchen ordered. "Run along the tops of them, might slow the big guys down a little if they gotta chase us through all that!" Leaping off the road and up to the top of the nearby line of ancient storefronts, Gretchen continued her sprint with sword held in a back-handed grip. The other seven of us followed suit, striking out over and through old walls and shattered colonnades, across pancaked rooftop tiling and leaping completely over cross streets in our mad dash. It worked. The goliaths didn't hesitate to begin trampling through the ruins after us, but definitely began to fall behind as they expended their momentum smashing through whatever stood in their way.

As we continued on, two of the grimm that followed us broke off their pursuit. I saw them turn off and begin pulverizing nearby ruins in what could only be described as a temper-tantrum. The largest, however, wasn't going to give up that easily. As if realizing that bumbling through the ruins was the reason we were now outpacing it, the beast turned sharply and made its way back out to the street. The one-grimm stampede again gained momentum, with the monster now running parallel to our course along the open main street. Now it was our turn to be slowed by our path, the precise leaping and perfectly balanced sprinting along crumbling roofs and palisades taking its toll on each of us. Sweat beaded on my forehead and my pulse thudded in my neck with only two hundred meters to go. The goliath had overtaken us, reaching the chasm's edge and slamming into the massive hewn boulders that made up the outer wall to arrest its inertia before turning on to an intercept course along the perimeter road. I could see the bridge directly ahead of us. We just had to reach it before the grimm. It was going to be close.

One-hundred meters, with the grimm out one-hundred and fifty. I was breathing hard, my lungs burning with the effort. Fifty meters, the goliath reaching seventy-five. I felt my pace faltering, but willed myself to push on out of desperation. We reached the bridge with the goliath barely ten meters behind us and began to dash across. A thunderous crash and the screech of rending iron caused me to look back. The goliath had smashed right through one side of the once-great archway. Its right tusk became caught in the great heavy chain that still held aloft the stone drawbridge's massive counterweight, wrenching it free of the shackle and pulley system. The chain whipped taught as the beast reared to free itself, finally ripping the enormous iron gear to which it was anchored off of its axis and slinging it through the air towards us. "Get down!" I shouted, just in time as the piece of the ancient winch system sailed right past where Tai's head had been before he'd thrown himself to the deck.

We all scrambled to our feet as the bridge shuddered and sheared, the main underlying supports to which that pulley had been slaved now compromised and beginning to collapse underneath the massive weight of the twenty-ton grimm that thundered forward as it resumed its charge after us. Even so, as the goliath gained speed it looked as though both us and the massive monster would make it to the other side before the bridge completely crumbled. "Gretchen!" I shouted. "Break it! Break the bridge!" Gretchen nodded, stopping to plant herself before the oncoming beast and raising Quake high over her head. She roared with the effort as she brought the blade down and pulled its trigger, breaking the gravity loop. A directed wave of powerful gravimetric energy surged forward from the small crater where the blade had impacted, strong enough even to stop the goliath in its tracks… Just before the hewn blocks beneath its feet gave way and it fell, its trumpeting roar echoing down the chasm as it fell to its death on the rocks below.

With every main support of the bridge now completely sundered, our half began to tilt back, cantilevered too far past the reinforced supports of the opposite-bank abutments. The stone span began to rip itself apart at the broken end, the cascade of unsupported rock nipping at Gretchen's heels as she scrambled up the rapidly steepening slope of the doomed crossing. If I didn't act quickly, she would soon be falling into the gorge below with about a hundred tons of granite right on top of her. I did the only thing I could: I gripped the penultimate section of Scourge's braid between the emitters with my right hand and flicked the trigger to extend the whip out to its fullest length with my left. Releasing the grip and taking hold of a lower section of braid, I swung the chassis of my weapon like a life ring before pivoting mid-stride and sending it flying towards her. She caught it, and I spun again to yank her back over my shoulder, focusing all of my aura into the muscles of my back and arms to heave her to safety.

The desperate move worked, but the effort it took caused my grip to slip and one of the vicious barbs to badly lacerate my now unshielded palm as I completed the motion and Gretchen sailed over my head. The sudden, sharp pain caused me to wince and release my grasp… At exactly the wrong moment. Val caught Gretchen's hand as she reached the precipice, and I saw her straining to hang on to Scourge with her other hand and save me also. I tried in vain to regrip the braid but the flow of slick blood from the injury caused my grip to falter. The last thing I remembered before the memory went dark was the sight of my group watching helplessly as I plummeted down, down, down into the gorge. The sound of Gretchen's mortified voice screaming my name echoed after me, just before I hit the water back-first. The sharp pain of the impact drove every ounce of air from my lungs and I blacked out, sinking quickly beneath the surface of the deep, rapid river.

* * *

I woke suddenly, flicking my right wrist to extend Thorn and reaching to the small of my back for Scourge. Neither weapon was where it was supposed to be. I panicked and sat bolt upright, expecting to see grimm surrounding me as I sat defenseless and ready to be devoured. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down Summer. You're fine," a nearby female voice insisted. "We're good, we're back at the school." I blinked, eyes adjusting to the white light of the room I found myself in. My armor and cloak were hung up neatly across from me, with Scourge and Thorn resting beside them on a desk. I was in a hospital gown, sitting in an infirmary bed, an oxygen mask over my face and a bandage over my right hand. My breathing slowed back down and I turned to the source of the voice.

Gretchen. She smiled, wiping away a tear as she leaned over my bedside to hug me. "Ow," I winced as her embrace hit a tender spot on my shoulder. I was sore all over, I realized, and taking a second look I saw deep purple contusions all up and down my arms and legs, as well as noticed the presence of a bandage over my head. I must've been hurt worse than I'd thought. "Uff… Hang on." I closed my eyes and focused, and as I opened them I saw the deep crimson energy of my aura ripple across my body. "That should help."

"Sorry," Gretch grinned sheepishly as she pulled away. "We thought we'd lost you. Looks like you hit just about every rock in that river. Transport fished you out in the shallows about a kilometer downstream, pumped the water out of your lungs. They said your heart'd stopped."

"Figures," I replied as I pulled the mask from my face and took a breath of normal air. "Bet yours would too, if you performed a perfect a backflop from that high."

"Hey, it was a perfect ten on my scorecard. Atlesian judge only gave you a six, though."

I feigned indignance. "Why those stuck up—"

"You guys do know I'm Atlesian by birth, right?" Gretchen and I turned towards the door to see Tai standing in the threshold. "Thought you were gonna miss the team selection ceremony, hotshot," he said as he stepped into my room to stand beside my bed.

"I still might, blondie," I smiled at my teammate and lay back on my pillow.

"Oh, you'll be fine," Tai waved dismissively, before his face straightened and he looked at me with mock suspicion. "Unless… Oh, no. Don't tell me you're already planning some more heroics in an effort to get yourself nearly killed _again_. That'd be, what, the fourth time today? Fifth? They don't give medals for that, you know."

"Maybe they'll make one. Call it the Rose award," I replied, my attempt at a chuckle silenced by a sharp pain in my diaphragm. "Uggh. Ow."

"Yeah, but you'll get it possumlessly if you ain't careful," Tai said with a grin.

"Poss—I think the word you're looking for is 'posthumously', bud," Gretchen said, rolling her eyes. Tai simply shrugged.

"Whatever. Close enough. I'll go tell the rest of the guys you're alright. Get better. Like, right now." Tai said with a grin, turning to leave and almost bumping straight into Professor Ozpin and his cup of cocoa as the latter turned the corner. "Whoa! Watch where you're… Oh… Ahhh ha ha ha, sorry, sir!"

"Quite alright, Mr. Xiao Long," the headmaster replied calmly. "Now, the naming of teams will commence in about an hour. Would the two of you mind if Ms. Rose and I had a moment to speak beforehand?"

"Of course, sir. We'll go wait in the lobby," Gretchen said as she stood up, nodding respectfully and elbowing Tai on her way out the door.

"Uhh… Yeah. Yessir. No problem. See you later, Summer," Tai waved awkwardly as he and Gretchen vacated the room and set off down the hall, out of sight.

Professor Ozpin closed the door behind him and sat down in an armchair across the room from me. As he so often did, he took a sip from his mug before speaking. "You truly are your father's child, do you know that, Ms. Rose?"

"I… I think so, sir. I mean, right? I never knew my mom, so I should pretty much just be my dad's little 'mini-me', right? I mean, except, I'm a girl so…" I shut up after I realized I was rambling.

"Indeed," the professor said after a minute. "But I don't think you realize to what extent. Your father nearly died on his initiation mission too. I was his partner. He saved my life, albeit," he paused to chuckle warmly, "I only needed saving once, as compared to your saving your groupmate's lives multiple times throughout the initiation challenge. Needless to say, you passed."

"I had my life saved a few times, too, Professor."

"Oh, I am aware. Your team will be one I will watch with great interest, as two of its members appear selfless to a fault in combat. The rest of your group passed the initiation challenge as well, I might add," Professor Ozpin said with a nod as he took another sip of cocoa.

"Well, that's good to hear. I think."

"It certainly should be. On that note I must caution you, though. Remember our conversation yesterday, Ms. Rose. Your lineage, the Silver-Eyed warriors. Your kind barely exist in this world any more for a reason. A single, fatal flaw. You are all selfless to a fault. Not a Silver-Eyes has lived that didn't become a hero in their own right. And you all have a tendency to die as heroes."

"Selflessness is a flaw?" I asked, incredulously wondering what he meant.

"Of course not. To the point of sacrificing one's own life even, is not a flaw in any definition of the word. What I meant by that is that adversaries of the Silver-Eyes, ones that truly understand what you are and what you are capable of, can and will use that."

"But I have no adversaries here, Sir. You said so yourself, yesterday."

"And that may be true. But… Well, at any rate you are likely have many adversaries if you go long in this profession." I got the distinct feeling that the headmaster had wanted to say something just then and didn't, as if something was bothering him but he perhaps thought it not my place to know. He stood, just as the thought crossed my mind. "What you must remember at all times is something that I know your father would've taught you about complacency. Be on your guard at all times."

"Complacency kills," I said reflectively, remembering how often that phrase had passed my father's lips as I'd grown up.

"Indeed. Especially in this line of work." The headmaster glanced at a pocket watch he pulled from the black waistcoat beneath his jacket and sighed. "This is another one of those conversations that really ought to have been tabled for when I had more than a few moments to speak with you. Now however, just as yesterday, I am out of time. I must head over to the auditorium and prepare to officiate the ceremony. This year will be a bit… different. Given that the goliaths your group managed to get the attention of completely destroyed the temple, all of the relics were lost in the rubble save the four your group recovered. Plans had to change, and we are certainly not going to make all of you re do your initiation."

"Well, that's a relief," I sighed.

"Indeed. Although, there is now the small matter of relocating the objective of the initiation challenge for when it is to take place in that sector of the kingdom with future classes. We can't very well send first-years to scout a city bordered by a now un-crossable gorge with the ultimate goal of digging through a hole in the ground to find their relics. Thankfully, my archaeological team recently found a shrine towards the northern end of the forest that should serve well enough. Now," the professor smiled, taking yet another sip from his mug and looking back up to me. "Please, do join us if you feel up to it. The forming of teams is always a very special event. Adieu, Ms. Rose." The professor gave a curt bow and turned smartly, exiting the door and disappearing down the hallway the same direction my friends had gone.

I checked the time on my scroll, which had been set beside my bed while I'd been out. The ceremony was to be at nine in the evening, and my lock screen read just after eight. "Well, let's just have a look at the damage," I said aloud to no one in particular. Disengaging the rail on one side of the bed, I swung my legs over the edge and my pink, fluffy hospital socks hit the floor. It took me a try or two to stand, a powerful headache causing me to lose balance a few times. I focused, drawing some extra aura up to my head and breathing a sigh of relief as the pain abated momentarily. I took a few steps over to the nearby mirror and unwrapped the bandage from about my forehead, wincing as I removed the last, bloodiest part of the wrap from the wound beneath. It wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting. There was what had probably been a nasty gash across my temple there, but my aura and the medical attention I'd received had clearly been working to heal it. My skin was a touch more pallid than normal, but other than that, I looked fine. Even my bruises had begun to fade since I had regained consciousness and my aura had again begun to flow across and through my body, slowly restoring it both inside and out.

Removing the bandage from my hand revealed just how bad my own weapon had damaged it. There were stitches running from the base of my index finger clear to the heel of my palm. Even with aura, that was not a scar that was likely to go away anytime soon, if ever. Looking over to my gear, I took a few shaky steps towards the armor stand before deciding, hardheadedly, that I was fine. I changed gingerly, easing into my armor and draping my cloak back about my shoulders. "Better," I said with a grin at my reflection, the young huntress who smiled unconvincingly back at me looking more like she wasn't particularly sure if that was really even true.

The desk nurse smiled and waved at me as I walked out. Apparently, I was free to go. In the waiting room, I rejoined Tai, Val, and Gretchen. Even the two girls with whom we'd made our escape were there, and Raven and Qrow too, despite the female half of the Branwen duo looking rather jaded. That was normal for her, though, so I didn't dwell on it. Surprisingly, Raven was actually the first to speak.

"I was wondering if you'd ever come to. Now at least we can finally get out of here." Still grumpy. Got it, I thought to myself. Good to know where the near-death experiences of allies fell in her priorities.

"Good to see you too," I said simply, matching her dry tone.

"Hmph," Raven mumbled quietly and shrugged, folding her arms across her chest as she did.

"Hey, don't think we really got introduced while we were… y'know, running for our lives. I'm Natalia. Most people just call me Talia though." The girl reached out and took my hand to shake, and began to squeeze firmly, but a stab of pain caused me to pull back.

"Ah, ow. Sorry, gimpy hand," I said apologetically for having to deny the courteous greeting. I waved my hand, showing Natalia the stitches that ran across it.

"Oh, no sorry, that's my fault," she said, opting instead to bow like students do to their teachers in many Mistraline fighting arts. Her fist, armored across the knuckles with a crude-looking steel bolster, thudded powerfully into her other hand as she did, and I smiled as I returned the dramatic gesture as best I could, given my injury. Natalia was about a head taller than me and built like a tank, with broad, muscular shoulders and muscular arms that came close to rivaling even Tai's athletic physique. Her impressive musculature was well-defined through the tight full-length sleeves of a nylon workout shirt that she wore cut off at the waist, showing off sculpted abs crossed by a loose shoulder bandolier of energy cartridges. A pair of belts crossed low over her hips, one of which sported a broad silver belt buckle that bore a motif of a roaring bear's head. She wore camouflage fatigue trousers, armored kneepads and shin-guards, and combat boots, and carried herself tall and proud, with a straight back and a confident expression. Her hair was shaved down to a very high military fade, the graduated fuzz on the side of her head giving way past a hard part to deep brown hair with a single wave of silver-platinum running through it. Despite her butch, tomboyish appearance, she was very pretty, with a proud, high cheek boned face and brilliant amber eyes that smiled good-naturedly down at me.

The other of the two girls was right behind Talia, though I almost thought she'd walked off or gone somewhere else before the gigantic girl turned and moved to stand beside Gretchen. This second girl had simply been dwarfed by the former, more petite even than I. Her face was elfish and delicate, with piercing green eyes that seemed to betray whip-smart intellect as she nodded courteously and introduced herself. "I'm Lilith Lawcere," She said simply and softly. "That was an incredibly brave thing you did, back on the bridge. Whatever team you end up with will be lucky to have you." Lilith seemed a little more shy than Talia, but was certainly no less beautiful. Her quick, intelligent gaze held my eyes for a moment before I very quickly looked at her outfit. A deep green, hooded shawl draped across her shoulders, underneath which she wore a simple brown corset and green combat skirt not-too-dissimilar from mine. She sported no armor, but there was an empty quiver hanging from her belt. I remembered the bladed compound bow she'd been holding during our mad dash to escape the goliaths. Thigh-high leather boots accented with green finished out her look. It reminded me fleetingly of a children's story I'd loved when I was a kid, about a hero who used to steal from the rich to feed the oppressed poor in ancient Mistral, once upon a time.

"Thank you, Lilith. You and Talia must've battled pretty hard to make it all the way to the temple alone. All six of us barely made it."

"There were a few good fights, but nothing like what it sounds like you guys went through. Grimm widowers are a rare sight, and a very dangerous one at that. And we didn't run into nearly as many alphas as your group did."

"Just rotten luck, I guess," I replied. I noticed Qrow look down as I said that, but I didn't think anything of it.

"So, you're feeling a bit better? Gonna make it to the ceremony?" Tai asked hopefully.

"I'm good. Had worse… Okay that's a lie, but my aura's got it. I wouldn't miss this."

"Well, let's get out of here, then. We're on the complete opposite side of campus from the auditorium," Gretchen said as she turned to leave. I followed right behind her, as Qrow fell into step beside me and Raven trailed, predictably, well behind the rest of the group as we filed out of the infirmary doors. The younger Branwen twin didn't say a word for a while. Finally, however, he broke the quiet just as I started to pick up my pace to walk beside Gretchen.

"Hey, Pe—Summer. Listen. I'm… I'm sorry, okay? About what all got said yesterday, about trying to get you involved in that little scheme."

I slowed back down, returning the remorseful look he was giving me with mock disinterest. "You know, it's gonna take a little more than killing a few grimm and an apology to get me to forgive that."

"Figured. You and Raven are similar like that."

"I thought you were apologizing."

"I am, I am. Don't take that the wrong way."

"Is there a right way to take it?" I asked with a roll of my eyes.

"Look, I'm just saying, both of you take a while to trust people. I don't think she even fully trusts me. I wouldn't."

I was actually genuinely surprised by that statement, but tried not to let it show in my response. "You two seem pretty tight to me."

"I can tell you're an only child."

"Meaning?"

"Just 'cos we're twins doesn't mean a damn thing. We only stick together because either of us are all the other has ever had since we were really, really young."

"That why you seem to take all your cues from her?"

"Do not!" Qrow said indignantly.

"Not gonna argue it. Just think about it." I didn't say anything for a moment. "I don't trust people that easily because it wasn't the grimm that killed my mom when I was still a baby. It was people. My dad saved me that night. Raised me to always be cautious. That's why it was weird that I started to trust you so quick after you helped me up yesterday. The way you stood up for me, I mean, even though you got swatted away pretty quick, it was noble. That same afternoon, I don't think I could've felt more betrayed, honestly. Finding out that you and Raven think like common thieves when you're together, and then hearing her justification for that and seeing you just sit there and accept it... Made me start thinking that I was right not to trust anyone."

Qrow frowned, but did seem to think about what I'd said for a minute. "You're right. You shouldn't trust anyone," he said when he finally spoke. "Least of all, me. Raven and I have had each other and no one else since our father died. Maybe I do let Raven do the planning, sometimes. There's a reason for that. Maybe what she says can rub people the wrong way. I wanted to apologize for me, not for her."

"What makes you think you need to apologize at all?" Qrow and I both turned to see Raven only about a meter behind us, having silently picked up her pace to match ours.

"You don't need to be part of this conversation, Raven," Qrow grumbled at his sister.

"Oh, I disagree. Because it sounds to me like you're a bit confused, brother."

"About what?" Qrow said, his face morphing into a scowl.

"About who we are. We don't apologize, we don't go outside our own for _support_ or to make _friends._ " Raven had spat those two words out with utter disgust. "Yet here I see you begging for forgiveness from some girl who has no idea what real struggle is."

"She almost died for her friend a few hours ago, Raven. You were wrong about her."

"I'm also right here, and can fend for myself," I said, raising my hand to signal Qrow that it was my turn to speak. "I don't know what your problem is, Raven. Where all this anger comes from. You're right, I probably don't know struggle like you do. Sounds like you and Qrow had it pretty rough, but I don't care. Whatever you experienced, gives you no right to judge anyone because of how much _better_ you suffered. And _you_ called _me_ out for having some kind of imaginary superiority complex yesterday? Maybe take a look in the mirror, sometime. Maybe, just _maybe_ , you'll find the person you're looking to blame for how much your life sucked staring right back at you."

Raven's eyes widened, then narrowed with rage at my suggestion. Her hand dropped to the hilt of her sword and she planted her feet as if preparing to strike. I extended Thorn's grip and the fingers of my right hand curled around the grip, my left hand going immediately to the small of my back to prepare to draw Scourge in response. There was murderous intent written all over Raven's features as she hissed, "How… _DARE_ you—"

"Ladies, ladies. There's no need for this right now." Moments before Raven and I probably would've drawn on each other, Tai stepped between us, putting a hand on both of our shoulders. Raven jerked away, seething and glaring at the unwanted intermediary.

"Don't touch me," she snarled.

"Wouldn't dream of it, sweetheart," Tai replied coolly. "Now, am I gonna have to keep you kids separated until the teams get named up? It's like the headmaster said yesterday; I'm sure you'll have plenty of chance to spar through the school year. No need to be killing each other now."

Raven continued her venomous stare at the two of us, before spinning on her heel and turning away, beelining for the auditorium that was now just across the commons from the group. "I'll go talk to her," Qrow said, turning and hurrying after his sister.

"Lot of good that'll do," I mumbled after him. Taking a breath, I relaxed and retracted Thorn's grip back to my gauntlet once again. "Thanks," I said to Tai.

"Hope you two aren't going to end up being a problem."

"I won't be if she won't." I looked off in the direction the Branwen twins had gone. I could see them arguing, silhouetted against the ambient light from the hololamps and pathway lighting all around the open area.

"Come on. Let's move, got only a few minutes till the ceremony kicks off," Gretchen said with a smile. We followed the Branwen twins right up to the doors of the auditorium, turning sharply left after seeing both of them head right upon crossing the threshold.

I settled into the crowd between Lilith and Gretchen. The latter of the two was standing on her tip-toes, scanning the crowd. "What're you looking for?" I asked her after a moment.

"Team HNTR. Hazel texted me. Said they're near the front… And there he is!" Gretchen started waving and jumping excitedly next to me, and I looked across the crowd in the direction she was facing. The fourth-year I saw waving back was probably the biggest human being I'd ever seen. Easily seven feet tall with a build to match, his bulk occupied a massive area towards the front of the auditorium. He had the same fawn-colored hair and tan complexion as Gretchen, and an encouraging and infectious smile that his sister returned spread across his chiseled features as I saw Professor Ozpin walking up to the podium.

The headmaster cleared his throat into the mic, sending a hush over the crowd, before pushing his odd little glasses up higher onto the bridge of his nose and speaking. "Students. Today, as happens every year, a new cohort of young future warriors will join your ranks as students of this prestigious academy. The initiation challenge was issued, as it was for each of you when you first arrived, and was met in accordance with the highest standards of this school. As I'm sure many of you may have heard already, things did not quite go as planned. The grimm are an unpredictable force, as all of you know, and the new group of first years intermingled throughout this room were forced to contend with many, many more of the beasts than had been anticipated. Every student who made it out of that forest alive has, and this I can assure you, earned his or her place here. The relics were of little consequence, and though Professor McCollough was devastated with the news," Professor Ozpin paused as the upperclassmen all laughed amongst themselves at the joke before continuing, "The temple at which many of you retrieved your own relics was destroyed before more than four pairs of students could retrieve theirs.

"That being said, the organization of teams was handled a bit differently this year. Micro-drone footage of every pair that formed has been analyzed and Doctor Hargrave and myself grouped those pairs into teams based on their performance on the mission. The four teams that managed to retrieve relics, however, were assigned their teams the traditional way. Those two teams will be announced last."

I saw Hazel look back at his sister, who shrugged. "Guess that means us," she said, turning to look at me. "What do you think the team name is gonna be? Let's see, S.T.G.V? No, that doesn't work. S.G.V.T? Nope. S.T.V.G? Nope…"

"Why do all those start with 'S'? I'm not gonna be a team lead."

"'Course you will. Who else would they pick? Tai? Dang near broke his ankle. Val? He already told me he didn't want to lead a team."

"You!"

"Nuh-uh. No way," Gretchen laughed.

"Why not? I almost died… like, a lot. You didn't."

"I did too almost die. But you saved my life first, which is exactly why you're gonna be team lead!" My friend insisted. "It's like the headmaster told you after we left back in the infirmary. Selfless to a fault, exactly what they're looking for in a leader!"

"I mean, I guess—Wait. You and Tai were listening just on the other side of the door, weren't you?"

"Uhh… he he… Yeah. Yeah, we were. What did the headmaster mean by 'Silver-Eyes'?"

I didn't know how to respond. That conversation wasn't supposed to leave that room. "I'll… I'll tell you later. Don't say anything about it. To anyone, understand?"

Gretchen looked at me confusedly for a moment before nodding and grinning. "I gotcha. Not gonna say a thing." Gretch drew her fingers across her mouth like she was closing a zipper, then crossed her heart with one hand while raising the other in a solemn oath.

Several teams had been called already by this point, and Gretchen and I stopped our conversation to watch. TQSE, CBLT, CMSN, among others I was sure I'd never remember until actually sparring with them. I was more interested in the various weapons the students carried. I saw battle-axes, glaives, a bo staff, some girl even had blades built into her greaves and gauntlets. Finally, however, Gretchen elbowed me to get me to focus. The headmaster had paused, and was staring right at me.

"Now," Professor Ozpin said after a moment, breaking eye contact with me and again looking out over the student body. "These final two teams are the only two that made it all the way to the ancient temple, and against commendable odds, retrieved the relics which were to be the original objectives of this initiation mission. Without further ado: Gretchen Rainart, Lilith Lawcere, Manfred Adler Dietrich Valkyrie, and Natalia Kashirina." Val's full name said aloud drew a laugh from the crowd, but Gretchen and I only stared at each other before Lilith nudged her and Talia began to pull her up towards the stage. I watched the four of them go, then turned my devastated look up to the podium. Ozpin had been watching for my reaction, giving me a reassuring nod before stepping over to shake hands with every member of the new team. Amidst the applause, he continued, "The four of you retrieved a map and a compass, each being items that are of limited use on their own, but together can help you find your way home. From this day forward, you will work together to find your way to the top of the monument on graduation day as Team GLDN, led by Gretchen Rainart." More applause, led by the thunderous clapping of Gretchen's brother, Hazel, filled the auditorium before the newly minted team GLDN filed off the stage and back down into the crowd.

Ozpin cleared his throat one final time before speaking once again. "And for our final team assignment of the night, Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen. The four of you retrieved both the broken blade and matching hilt of a great-war-era sword. While not as intricate or devastating a weapon as might be found today, for thousands of years a warrior's ability to use that simple tool effectively was his or her whole measure as a person. You each wield armaments far more clever and deadly than this sword, but it will be how you learn to use your relationships with each other that will define you as a team." I didn't want to move. Tai had to grab me by the elbow and drag me the first few steps before my legs started moving robotically towards the stage. I saw Raven and Qrow approach from the opposite side, with Raven never once breaking her scowl in my direction as the four of us made our ways up opposite sides of the platform.

"From this day forward, the four of you will be known as Team STRQ, led by Summer Rose." I almost didn't hear the headmaster's words. Not because of the applause that filled the air as it had for team GLDN. I knew I'd just been made a team leader. I knew my team name and who was on it… It just didn't seem real. "Congratulations, young lady," Professor Ozpin said as he stood in front of me. I shook his hand, returning his encouraging smile with a look of confusion and despair.

"How? How am I going to lead them?" I tilted my head in the direction of the Branwens.

"You'll find a way. Your father always did," the professor said conciliatorily before moving on to shake the hands of Tai, Qrow, and Raven.

"Oh, boy," I sighed as applause continued to echo about the room and my new team filed off together.


	8. Chapter 8: Like What You See?

**Chapter 8: "Like what you see?"**

"Room 416, guys. Just got the text with room assignments." I flashed the message in Tai and Qrow's direction as the four of us made our way to the dormitory alongside team GLDN.

"You guys are in 416? Of what, building three?" Gretchen asked, leaning over to see the text and compare it to the one she'd received on her own scroll. I did likewise, noticing that GLDN had been assigned to room 417, making them our across-the-hall neighbors and suitemates. At least they would be close by, I thought.

"What'd the boss-man say your name was, man?" I looked over my shoulder to see Qrow extend a hand to Tai, who took it and shook.

"Tai. You? Qrow, right?"

"That's me."

"You're the kid that got stuck in that second-year's gum yesterday, aren't you?" Tai asked with a wry grin.

"Son of a… Did anyone _not_ see that? That's like the fifth time I've been asked."

"Mmm, probably not. There was a pretty serious crowd."

Qrow rolled his eyes. "Damn. Something tells me I'm not going to live that down for a while."

"Try ever," I inserted, casting a smile back at the boys despite my generally crappy mood.

Tai, along with every member of team GLDN shared the laugh at Qrow's expense. He glowered at me for a moment before sighing and lacing his fingers confidently behind his head. "Go ahead. Laugh it up while you can. Just wait till sparring class, ain't nobody got moves like me."

"Confident, huh? I'm thinkin' I got a twenty-card here says you can't back that up."

"Against you? Oh, you're on," Qrow grinned back.

"I'm in," Talia said, waving her hand. "I got twenty on Tai."

"I'll match. Twenty on Tai," Val chimed in.

"Wow. Anyone else?" Qrow asked the rest of the group. "I'd love to take your money. Anyone? No? Raven?" Qrow's sister scowled wordlessly back at him. "Alright. Don't have to split the take then."

"Hm. Take, he says," Tai grinned. "What's twenty divided three ways? Like six lien and change? Worth it to take you down a peg."

"Bring it on, blondie," Qrow replied evenly.

Gretchen and I shook our heads at the impromptu gambling ring that seemed to be forming between our teams. "Anyone happen to check that code of conduct the Dean sent about that kind of stuff?"

"Psh. We ain't gonna get caught," Tai laughed.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna say I didn't get around to reading it yet," Qrow agreed with a shrug as we passed beneath a stone archway between two lecture halls and caught our first glimpse of the student quarters beyond.

The dormitory building to which my scroll directed us was a massive four-story building a few rows back from the arch. We entered a doorway with the words 'Building Three: Western Stairwell' engraved above it, and a quick jaunt up the four flights of stairs took us to a long hallway that seemed to run the length of the building. At intervals, secondary hallways leading to individual two-room suites branched off from the main one, each with a set of numbers to the left of their entrances. The eight of us set off down the hall, eventually turning into suite number eight and reaching rooms 416 and 417. Gretchen and I each scanned our scrolls on the electronic locks simultaneously, with both issuing an electronic whirr as the deadbolt retracted and the doors clicked open. I noticed that our door had already been fitted with a small placard that read 'STRQ' as I held it for my team. Tai and Qrow entered, flipping on the lights to reveal the rather tight living space. Raven didn't bother to break the threshold, however, and simply flung her old backpack around the corner and onto the bed furthest to the right. With that, she spun, making not so much as a moment of direct eye contact with anyone before she stormed back off the way we'd all just come.

Qrow watched her leave, and I looked at him, fully expecting that he'd go racing off after his sister. He noticed my glance and shrugged. "Hey, I'm tired. If she wants to go sulk then that's on her, I'm going to bed." With that, he flopped back onto the third of the four narrow beds, next to the one Raven had claimed. "Ohhhohohoohhh… I'm going to like it here," he grinned, seeming to marvel at the softness of his mattress. Pulling his flask out from his hidden shirt pocket again, he undid the cap and tilted it back as he craned his head to the side and up. Nothing flowed from the opening, and the boy seemed to remember then with a scowl that Raven had dumped his booze back in Ancient Vale. "Damn. Hope they have something worth drinking around this place," he grumbled, the flask clattering against the wall and across the floor of the room as he tossed it grumpily away.

I looked back towards Gretchen, who'd lingered in the hallway as I had. She gave me a reassuring look, before shrugging. "You'll do fine. Raven'll come around, I'm sure."

"I wish I had your confidence," I said, smiling unconvincingly. "Well. Goodnight, I guess."

"Night. Thanks for… Y'know. Not letting me fall to my death."

"No problem. Thanks for hanging on to Scourge for me. I'd've hated to have to rebuild it from scratch."

"No problem," Gretchen acknowledged with a grin, before turning into her room and disappearing behind the door as it closed. I lingered for a moment more, sighed, and did the same.

"Classes start at nine tomorrow, guys. I'm setting an alarm." Tai nodded as I turned away from the door and took a step into the room. Qrow didn't say anything, sprawled across his mattress face-down and already beginning to breathe slowly, rhythmically as sleep began to take him. "Hey. Hey, Qrow. Qrow!" No response. I scooped his flask off the floor where it had come to rest and threw it at him.

"Mmmmh… hmm?" The boy mumbled in response to the clanking metal against the headboard of his bed. "Classes at nine. Got it," he said drowsily and waved a dispassionate 'thumbs-up' before his arm slumped back down over the side of his bed and he began to snore softly.

I dug into my bag and retrieved my pajamas and a towel, turning back towards the door to see Tai leaning over our teammate. He waved a hand in front of the Qrow's face, checking for any reaction as if to confirm that he was really out cold. I watched confusedly for a moment but didn't say anything. Seemingly satisfied that Qrow was fast asleep, Tai tiptoed over to the locker marked 'Q. Branwen', swinging the door open and regarding the five full sets of uniform slacks and coats that hung within. Stealing a glance at me, then to Qrow, then back to me again, he grinned mischievously.

"What?" I asked. Tai held a finger to his lips, nodding his head over at Qrow.

"Do you have any extra skirts in yours?" He whispered after he took a moment to ensure Qrow didn't stir. Tai pointed at the small door across the room that bore a placard reading 'S. Rose'.

I turned and opened the closet, realizing then that my own allotted five uniform sets were hanging neatly within. I turned back to Tai and whispered back, "Why do you need one of my skirts?"

"Don't worry about it," he shot back quietly.

"I am worrying about it, but here," I said with a shrug, and handed him one of the plaid, thigh-length garments.

"Actually, lemme get two. We gotta make this believable." I rolled my eyes and handed him the second skirt.

"Whatever you got planned, it better not be weird." I watched as Tai hung one of the skirts in his own locker, and the other in Qrow's.

"So you've got three, now. I've got one…" I heard Tai mumble to himself as he pointed to my locker, then to his, seeming to figure something quickly in his head before reaching into Raven's locker and stealing two of her skirts as well. Nodding to himself, he hung those two alongside the one of mine in Qrow's locker. Next, he took every pair of trousers from his own and Qrow's lockers, folded them, and stashed them in the bedside drawer between his bed and mine.

"Ok," I whispered. "Are you ever gonna tell me what the heck you're up to?"

"Just play along tomorrow. I'm gonna try and convince him that they're kilts."

"What makes you think he's really that dumb?"

"Heard him flirting with Lilith back in the waiting room while you were still out. Think he told her he's from Anima. Nomad tribe, sounded like. If that ain't a lie, I betcha he hasn't ever even _seen_ a uniform before, much less worn one. It'll work."

I rolled my eyes, both at the plan and at the apparent fact that Qrow was already making passes at classmates. "Whatever. Guess we'll see." I again grabbed my fuzzy flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top and headed out the door to grab a shower before bed. The end of another long day, I thought as I made my way to the suite's girl's washroom adjacent the common area and kitchenette. Once inside, a cursory glance at the plate-glass mirror revealed that none of my wounds seemed particularly grievous anymore, the gash on my hand still the worst of those but well on the way to recovery.

Raven hadn't returned by the time I got back to the room. I didn't care. Like her brother had said, if she wanted to sulk, that was on her. I certainly wouldn't be the one to complain about her absence. Without so much as another thought about my recalcitrant teammate, I pulled back the covers on the bed furthest from where her pack lay and climbed in, falling asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

An electronic whirring echoed in my mind some time later, as though it were far away but impossibly close by at the same time. I felt the miasma of deep sleep begin to lift in response, and my mind cleared enough to recognize the sound as belonging to the lock on our room's door. Irritated at having been woken from such wonderful sound slumber, I cracked one eye to determine who the intruder was. At first, the only thing I could make out in the darkness of the room was the light on the mechanical lock of the door as it flashed from red to green. The handle turned after an awkward moment and the door swung slowly open. I regained full consciousness and my eyes adjusted to the gloom just in time to remember that I'd gone to sleep before my teammate had returned. Raven must finally have gotten back, I thought annoyedly, and her entry had woken me. Sighing at the prospect of chasing down a few more hours of good sleep before the first day of classes on her account, I adjusted my head on my pillow and closed the eye I'd opened as the door stopped its swing and hung ajar.

I heard the urgent whisper of an unfamiliar voice moments later. It wasn't Raven, and I couldn't make out what it'd said. Both of my eyes fluttered open this time, and I looked to see the door still stuck wide open. Two figures were standing in the hallway beyond, peering in at me. They were naught but silhouettes, pitch black against the dark of the wall behind them, but something seemed strangely familiar about the one who quickly ushered the other away from my line of sight and down the hall leading out of the suite. Weird.

I pulled back my covers and swung my legs out of bed. Who else beside Raven would have access to our room? The boys were out cold and snoring softly, and Raven's bed was still empty. Could the two figures have taken her scroll? Unlikely. Why would they? First-years don't have that many clearance codes downloaded as yet. If the intruders had wanted to get somewhere important, they should've gone after a senior's scroll. Or better yet, one belonging to a staff member. And why would they come here first? The uncertain line of thinking bounced around in my head as I peered down the hall in the direction the two figures had gone. Nothing. Curiosity overwhelmed my desire to go back to sleep and I headed out of the suite, into the main hallway and down towards the near western stairway. Again, I began to hear voices, echoing out from the landing just beyond the doorway ahead of me. By tone and pitch I thought that perhaps the owners of those voices may have been female, but even that was only barely distinguishable. The only thing I could tell with any certainty was that the back and forth they were having was both urgent and intense.

Whoever they were, I wanted to get closer than my position just inside the fourth-floor hallway. I closed my eyes for the briefest of moments and felt the familiar, comforting tingle of my semblance activating as I turned myself invisible, confirmed moments later when my eyes opened and I could only just see the outline of my hands and arms glowing an iridescent crimson in the dim of the hallway. Peering ever-so-cautiously around the corner, I managed finally to catch sight of one of the two figures. The large, pyramidal skylight above the winding square stairwell cast the pale glow of the stars down in a diffuse beam of illumination, allowing me the first clear-ish look I'd been able to get of one of the intruders. She was tall, armored, and I thought quite pretty, though I couldn't really make out details in this light. She was nervously stroking a spiraling, waist-length ponytail that spilled over her shoulder, locked in conversation with the anonymous other who stood a bit further down the stairs and still out of sight.

Keeping close to the wall, I crept slowly down to the right, taking the flight of stairs to the first landing. From there, I made my way silently up to the banister, knowing that I'd be in a better position here to see the second individual to whom the tall girl was urgently speaking. Strangely enough, I still couldn't make out what either was saying despite being barely five meters from them. Through the small slits between the stone pillars of the hewn railing, I could see brief glimpses of the other figure, but it wasn't until I peeked over the handrail that I got my first good look at her. I didn't get to look for long, though. My eyes swept once up and down the vague form, noting her short black skirt, asymmetrical black armor, and tattered white cloak that were all startlingly similar to the gear I typically wore. She appeared to be a little older than I, perhaps by a few years anyway, her hair cut to about shoulder-length and her bangs pulled back over her ears and tied into some kind of ribbon at the back. As my gaze settled on the girl's shadowed face, however, I realized that she was staring right back at me. I checked my arms again, noting the aural glow that confirmed I was still invisible. Looking back, I saw that the girl was looking me up and down in the same way I'd just done to her as I stood. That should've been impossible. The tall girl, the one I'd been able to see from the top of the stairs, turned when her companion's line of sight shifted in my direction, but searched the wall behind me in vain as she tried to find what the second girl was now staring at.

A tense but extremely brief moment passed before the second girl uttered a single, urgent phrase to her companion. I still couldn't tell with any clarity what had been said, but the imperative galvanized her perplexed confidant to follow her swiftly down the stairs. The sudden sprint took me off guard, and I nearly tripped down the stairs as I tried to give chase.

"Hey, come back here!" I shouted. The two mysterious figures couldn't have been up to any good, if they were running like that. My bare feet thumped down the tile stairs as I desperately tried to gain ground on the fleeing girls. Looking down to avoid losing my footing in the dark, I realized that it almost looked like my feet were running backwards up the stairs with every step I took down towards the ground floor. I shook my head, chalking the strange sight up to tiredness and the dim light playing upon the pattern of the tiled stone steps, and continued on. Upon reaching the first-floor landing, I threw open the door to the vestibule just as it swung closed from the second girl's exit and emerged into the moonlit night. The two strange intruders were gone without a trace. White rose-petals danced in the night breeze before me, but beyond that, the night was still and silent. After a moment of scanning the surrounding area with no results, I turned to head defeatedly back into the dormitory and to bed. Before I could spin completely back towards the door, I realized something just seemed… off. Realizing what it was caused me to do a double-take and look back out upon a sight that filled me with confusion.

I hadn't emerged in the thoroughfare that ran along the western edge of the student quarters like I should have. Instead, the worn stone walls that now surrounded me were those of the old courtyard where I'd first met Professor Ozpin. The snarled old oak and the statue of King Zoroaster stood just as they had the morning before last. The statue's eyes still bored into mine, as piercing as plasma drills. Strange. I could've sworn I'd come out exactly the same door I'd entered earlier that evening alongside team GLDN after the ceremony. Was there another entrance nearby or…?

My bewilderment was cut short when a sound like the crumbling of stone began to echo around the courtyard, breaking the surreal silence that had pervaded the air moments before. The origin of the noise eluded me for a moment as I looked around, but movement from the direction of the monument drew my attention. Cracks had appeared in the solid marble base of the statue, expanding and radiating outward through the concentrically lain pavers as I watched. From those fissures there bubbled an odious and black treacly ooze, the same strange, evil substance I'd seen regenerate the giant widower back in Ancient Vale. Very quickly, a pool formed around the memorial as the closest pavers disintegrated and sank beneath the burbling tide. Even the statue itself began to sink, slipping beneath the dark surface more and more quickly as what had been a small puddle grew unsettlingly large within the span of mere moments.

I tried to turn and run back inside when I realized that more and more of the courtyard was being completely swallowed up, thinking perhaps I'd be safe indoors. When I spun, however, the only thing that stopped my face from slamming into the wall was the grasping hand I'd extended to take hold of a door handle that was no longer there. The door was completely gone, replaced by the featureless old stone of this section of the original dormitory building. Desperately, I pressed against the unyielding hewn blocks. Nothing. Turning back around, fear gripped me as I realized that the dark fluid was now lapping at the edge of the raised stone border of the space, utterly trapping me against a flood that filled the entire courtyard. To make matters worse, the stone block upon which I stood split right between my feet and began to sink with me still on it.

There was nowhere to go. Scourge was not on my back, nor Thorn on my wrist to help me affect an escape. Another sudden shift as my purchase settled and sank further caused my foot to slip into the poisonous sludge and become stuck. I couldn't pull it out, with every effort simply pulling me further in. Pretty soon, I was up to my ankles, and then to my knees in the inescapable horror. I saw the old statue make its final plunge, tilting back as it did. King Zoroaster's extended hand and crown were the last things to slip beneath the glassy-smooth surface of the pool before all went quiet for a brief moment. Seconds later, right at the spot the monument had just descended into, the mire began to roil violently. That boiling disturbance spread in waves that rippled and splashed at my thighs as I sank ever deeper, before a shape, terrible and huge, burst from the abyss with a screeching roar of unimaginable magnitude.

The same pure, liquid darkness in which I was now firmly trapped began to slide from the creature's shape, exposing the immediately recognizable bony skull plate of a grimm, this one belonging however to a creature dozens of times the size of any I'd ever encountered. Six glaring, red-yellow eyes stared at me from deep within that crested head as the monster clawed its way free, revealing first its long neck, followed by massive prehensile wings. The hopelessness that gripped me at my predicament only multiplied when gazing into the scorching focus of the monster's gaze. Paralyzed with fear, I almost didn't notice when my mouth and nose reached the level of the black tide and I slipped beneath the surface. The all-encompassing blackness of the pool was the last thing I saw before I began to slip out of consciousness. The impenetrable void closed in about me, and my last thoughts were a racing, jumbled mess of confusion and terror the like of which I'd never before experienced.

When I came to, Tai was shaking my shoulder. I was trembling, and my eyes darted nervously in all directions. I was back in my room. Morning light was filtering around the edges of the curtain. Qrow was standing there too, looking worriedly down on me.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down. You good? Think you just had a nightmare or something. You're fine."

My frenetic glances about the room ceased and my gaze settled on my teammate's concerned face. I stared hard into Tai's eyes as he knelt beside my bed, trying to decide he was real. Convinced after a tense moment that he was, I patted the wrist of the hand that gripped my shoulder in a thankful gesture and sat up. "I'm good. I'm good." My sheets were soaked with sweat and wrapped awkwardly about my legs, but for the most part my affirmation held true.

"You sure? You were thrashing around pretty hard for a minute there," Qrow said.

"I'm fine. Really. Just had the craziest dream or… Nightmare, or something. I don't really know."

"What was it about?"

"I…" I thought for a moment, realizing quickly that I could recall absolutely none of what I'd just dreamt. Only general feelings—curiosity, fear, despair—but nothing at all beyond that. "I don't remember."

Tai and Qrow shared a fleeting look of concern. "You shouted at somebody to 'Come back here'," Tai said, trying to jog my memory. "That's what woke me up. You'd gone invisible, too."

"Yeah," Qrow agreed. "It was pretty weird seeing your sheets getting kicked around with nobody in 'em. Then you popped back into view and Tai woke you up."

I shrugged. "It was just a stupid dream."

"Alright. If you're sure," Tai said, clearly still not convinced.

"I'm sure." Reaching over to my nightstand, I retrieved my scroll. "What the—It's eight-forty?"

"Yeah, so?" Qrow shrugged.

My legs swung out from beneath my covers and I stood, grabbing my scroll from the nightstand and leaping over Tai's bed. Throwing open the eastward-facing window's curtain, the room flooded with bright morning sunshine. The boys both squinted and grumbled their displeasure at the sudden flash, but I ignored the glare and checked the alarm app on my scroll. A small notification that read 'Missed Alarm- 8:00' flashed across the top of the screen. "Crap. Guys, get dressed. Like _now._ "

"Why? What's the rush?" Qrow asked with a shrug.

"I told you last night! Classes start at nine, dummy!"

Someone knocked on our door just then, and I bolted over and flung it open. Gretchen was standing there with Lilith and Natalia, with Val close behind. "You guys aren't ready yet?" Gretch asked in disbelief.

"No! I just woke up! My alarm didn't go off for some reason."

"Eeesh. Well, better hurry up. We're gonna head out. It's 'Combat Application Lab 1' first thing for us."

"Yeah, us too," I answered. "We'll be there. Don't wait up," I said as I let the door close and bolted over to my closet. I hated waking up and not even getting the time brush my teeth, but this was going to be one of those mornings, it seemed, whether I liked it or not.

"The heck is all this?" I heard Qrow's confused grumble from across the room as I pulled a uniform set from its hangar and slammed my locker door.

"Uniforms. Put one on, dummy," Tai shot back. I turned in time to see Qrow withdraw a men's sportscoat and one of the skirts Tai had placed in his locker, eyeing the ensemble dubiously. I'd almost forgotten the prank Tai had cooked up, and slowed in my frenzy to watch the results. There was no way this was gonna work.

"Where are the pants?" Qrow asked.

"It's a kilt. I got one too, look." Tai grabbed my extra skirt from his closet, holding it up for Qrow to see.

"A what?"

"A kilt. Highland tribesmen here in Sanas wear 'em. That's where I'm from, up in the mountains to the east of here. Believe it or not, they're great for hiking and fighting. Real breezy around your—"

"Please don't finish that sentence," I interjected.

Tai shot me a mischievous grin. "As you wish." To my surprise, Qrow actually nodded after a moment.

"I… I guess. I mean… It looks a little small."

"Oh, you'll fit, bean-pole," Tai said flippantly.

Qrow began to undo his trousers. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?" I exclaimed.

"What? I'm wearing underwear!"

"Dunno how you nomadic types do it out in Anima, but pretty much everywhere I've lived guys don't drop their pants in the presence of a lady," Tai chided.

"City people are weird," Qrow grumbled with a shrug. "Sorry."

"I'll head to the bathroom and change," I said with a sigh as I stepped out of the room. The door shut behind me and I sighed. This whole co-ed room thing was going to take some getting used to, for sure. It only took me a minute or two to change, and I quickly brushed my hair back into order from the wild night's sleep before trotting back to the room and knocking. "You guys ready?"

"We're good!" I heard Tai's shout. He was very clearly trying hard not to laugh.

I unlocked the door and stepped inside, nearly bursting out into uncontrollable laughter myself. "What?" Qrow asked, noticing the grin I was trying to stifle. The 'kilt' he was wearing barely reached mid-thigh on his lanky frame. Tai was wearing one as well, visibly trying to suck in his muscular core to avoid tearing through the borrowed garment.

"Nothing. You two look good. It's a lot better than that little cape-thing you wear."

"It's a cloak!" Qrow exclaimed defensively.

"No, this is a cloak," I said, pulling my long white hooded cloak about my shoulders and tightening the clasp beneath my family's 'burning rose' emblem. "I honestly dunno what that is," I said, nodding to the short crimson cape that lay across the footboard of Qrow's bed.

"We can argue style later," Tai said, chuckling. "Don't we gotta get out of here?"

"Yeah. We gotta get across campus to the building next to the auditorium. That's where the sparring class is at."

"Let's go then," Tai called with a wave over his shoulder as Qrow and I followed him out the door.

"Any idea where Raven is?" I asked the younger Branwen twin as we headed down towards the stairwell.

"Nope. I'm sure she'll turn up. Don't worry about her."

"Believe me, she's the last person I'd worry about. It just won't look good on the team if we have someone not show up on the first day of class."

"Crap. You guys go ahead," Tai said from in front of us, just as he reached the top landing of the stairwell. "I forgot my books." I caught the wink he threw me as he turned on his heel and sprinted back towards our suite.

"Should we wait for him?" Qrow asked.

"No. Let's get out of here." I waved for Qrow to follow and sprinted down the stairs, two at a time. I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu as I hurried down the tile steps, but I really had no idea why.

The commons were completely empty on our way to the lecture hall. My scroll showed the time as 9:01. We'd be late, but if we hurried, it wouldn't be that bad. Hopefully Professor Hargrave was in a forgiving mood. I flung the doors to the large, stadium-shaped building open and banked a hard right up the stairs in the open, curved outer lobby, with Qrow close behind. I could hear the dean's deep, rumbling voice echoing out of an open doorway from the second-floor walkway onto which we'd ascended. As we approached, I caught sight of Gretchen and the rest of GLDN seated at the highest row of seats, right by the door. Our eyes met and she waved me in, holding a finger to her lips to indicate that we should enter as quietly as possible.

I edged around the corner of the doorway, trying to slip in unnoticed, finding to my pleasant surprise a section of empty seats at the top row just across the access aisle from GLDN. Just as I slid to a seat, thinking we'd made it without a problem, I realized Hargrave had stopped speaking, and was staring straight at me. Crap. Busted.

"Ah. So good of you to join us, Miss Rose. I'd wondered when the rest of STRQ would show up."

I stood, tentatively and ashamedly. "I… Uh… I'm sorry, Sir. It won't happen again." Silently, I wondered what the professor had meant when he'd said 'the rest' of my team. Scanning the other students, my eyes finally settled on Raven, far in the opposite corner. She must've somehow gotten a copy of our class schedule. I sure hadn't told her. Her glare in my direction made it clear she was still rather pissed about the team selection of the night prior, but the angry stare softened moments later when her gaze shifted over to her brother, who's slid to a seat beside me.

"See that it doesn't, team leader. And, Mr. Branwen," Hargrave boomed as I sat down.

"Uh… Yes?" Qrow replied.

"Stand up," I whispered from the bench seating next to him. Qrow grumbled and stood.

"Mr. Branwen, might I suggest you take a closer look at school uniform regulations before returning to class tomorrow?"

"Whaddayou… Uh… Mean…?" Qrow's voice trailed off as he looked about the students on the stadium seats around us. All eyes were turning to him. Giggles and murmurs were beginning to echo about the space. Across the aisle, Val finally burst into unrestrained laughter, just as Tai appeared in the doorway, having changed into his black uniform slacks when he'd gone back to the room for his 'books'.

Down on the stage, a burly young huntsman, probably about ten years removed from senior year and sporting a short black moustache and neatly parted black hair seemed to be fighting to restrain himself. He whispered something to professor Hargrave from his position beside the former headmaster, before turning on his heel and pushing through one of the doors to the men's locker room. At that moment, his restraint seemed to fail him and I could hear his booming laughter echoing from the room he'd retreated into. More laughs began to break out around the room as our classmates all turned to see what was causing the commotion.

"What? What's everyone laughing at!?" Qrow shouted, before his eyes settled on Tai. Our teammate leaned, self-satisfaction written all over his smug features, against the doorway.

"Nice skirt, dude," the blonde boy said casually, before breaking into his own fit of laughter and leaning over to high-five Val.

"I… But didn't you say it was…"

"I can't believe you fell for that!" Tai exclaimed, laughing so hard he collapsed and began literally rolling on the floor by our seats.

Qrow's face turned red, first with embarrassment, then with anger. To my surprise, however, he didn't launch himself at Tai for some good old-fashioned vengeance. His features calmed as he took a breath, and though I couldn't understand for the life of me why, he then began to laugh as well.

"Heh." Qrow shrugged as he walked over to Tai, who hadn't pulled himself off the floor yet. "Guess you just really wanted to see me in a skirt, huh? Well," as he spoke, Qrow brought his right leg up and planted his heel onto the top step of the aisleway, right by Tai's head. Tai, wiping tears out of his eyes from his gleeful outburst, looked up from the floor… straight up Qrow's skirt. "Like what you see?" Qrow began to laugh even harder as Tai shut his eyes and began to fumble awkwardly away.

"Awwwh! Dude! What the heck!" Tai stood, shaking his head like he was trying to purge some mental image from his mind. "I'm never gonna un-see that, now."

"If you didn't wanna see it, you shouldn't've tricked me. Hope you took a good long look."

"There's somethin' loose in that brain of yours," Tai grumbled as he got to his feet.

"Gentlemen. Please. Take your seats. Class has been interrupted long enough, thanks to your… Theatrics." Professor Hargrave's projected voice seemed to shake the room, and though he spoke calmly, Tai and Qrow immediately stepped down to the first row of seats and plopped down beside me, nervously nodding their assent.

"Now. Where were we, before team STRQ thought it best to interrupt our learning experience?" The rhetorical question was followed up by another glare in our direction by the professor. I swallowed and sank a little further in my seat.

"Symon. Please. Does it not seem that you're being a little too hard on them?" The new voice came from the opposite doorway to the one we'd entered. I looked, already aware by the calm, measured cadence of the voice that Professor Ozpin had decided to pay the class a visit. "I believe we can simply chalk their tardiness up to bad luck, and let it go at that." The headmaster glanced past me, directly at Qrow for a split second, and I could've sworn I heard my teammate gasp softly under his breath.

"You may be right, Oz," Professor Hargrave said. "I'm only trying to make it clear that it won't be tolerated _in my classroom_." I couldn't help but notice the older huntsman had emphasized the last part of that sentence quite pointedly. When Professor Ozpin didn't react, however, I thought perhaps I'd only imagined some animosity where in fact there was none. "Now. Students, since our headmaster has decided to observe you lot on your first day of classes, I think this would be an excellent opportunity for some of you to show us exactly what you already know. Two volunteers. Now."

Several students looked from one to another confusedly. I heard one girl near me quietly ask her teammate, "Wait, does he mean spar? Right now?"

"That's exactly what I mean," Hargrave said, responding to the girl with his rumbling voice. The fact that he'd been able to hear her murmur the question from all the way down there was intriguing, but I didn't have time to dwell on it before I noticed movement in my periphery. Qrow and Tai and both stood straight up, hands rocketing skyward in unison.

"We'll go, sir!" Tai shouted down to the professor.

"Heck yeah. Let's do it," Qrow added gamely.

"Hmmph. You boys certainly seem determined to hog the limelight. Very well. Get down here. I hope you brought your weapons."

"Always," Tai grinned, grabbing the grips of his collapsed tonfas and releasing them from the mag plates strapped to his thighs outside his trousers. A jaunt down to the lowest seating level and a quick flip over the rail took him down to the base of the fighting stage, where he turned and waited for Qrow. My dark-haired teammate smiled coolly in kind and opted to walk calmly around to the side of the stadium-seating to the stairwell that was recessed into the wall there.

"Hey, nice legs, killer!" Natalia called, followed by a whistle from Gretchen. Qrow waved up at them, and I couldn't help but notice him wink at Lilith. So, it was true. He had been flirting with her.

Qrow turned back to his opponent as he made it to the bottom of the steps. "Gotta say, this thing is a little freeing. Like you said, Tai. I bet it's real comfortable to fight in," Qrow remarked as he strode a bit too confidently to where our teammate expectantly stood.

"Looks great on you. Really brings out your eyes."

Qrow feigned bashfulness at the sarcastic compliment. "You really think so?"

"No."

A ripple of laughter at the boys' back and forth was silenced with a wave from Professor Hargrave. "Alright, gentlemen. Opposite ends of my fighting stage. Assume your stances."

"Hey Tai," Qrow shot over as the two of them made their ways onto the tiled platform.

"What?"

"Don't take this beating too serious. Just good business, far as I'm concerned."

"I love kicking the cockiness outta guys like you. Don't worry, though. Just so long as you're not a sore loser, we'll be good."

"If you two are done…" Hargrave grumbled from just off the stage.

"Ready when you are, Sir. Call it," Tai said, extending his tonfas and crouching like a blonde tiger readying a pounce.

"I'm good," Qrow said with a dismissive wave. He took no stance. He didn't draw Curse. He just swept his scraggly black bangs out of his eyes and back over his head and stood there, utterly still. I looked over at Raven as the mumbles of confusion could be heard all about the room. She was smiling slightly, clearly not at all surprised. Apparently, this wasn't out of the norm for her brother. My eyes turned with great interest to the stage, eager to see which of my teammates was really the better fighter.

"Fighters ready… FIGHT." Tai exploded towards Qrow the very millisecond Professor Hargrave's hand lowered and his command boomed around the room. Qrow didn't so much as twitch as his opponent hurtled towards him…

What the heck is he thinking?


	9. Chapter 9: Nightmares

**Chapter 9: Nightmares**

"You must've been feeling pretty terrible right about now," Pyrrha observed, indicating the dour scowl that had been set across my face since the moment I'd set off towards the dorms following the team-naming ceremony. The two of us were walking right amongst the members of the newly minted teams STRQ and GLDN, listening as team members got to know each other and Tai made his bet with Qrow.

"Hm. What gave it away?" I asked rhetorically in response. "Oh, but you're right of course. I wasn't ready to trust either Raven or Qrow quite yet at that point, and I guess I was just still really bummed out about not ending up on a team with Gretchen."

"I imagine I'd have felt the same," Pyrrha said, nodding. "Hey," she added, looking around at the surrounding buildings as the eight teenagers pushed through the old western stairwell doors into our residence hall. "Your teams lived in the same building as us."

"Yep. Same floor, too. Three suites down from you guys. I actually went to go check out my old room back when you all were getting settled in last year. Bunch of stupid-looking boys in heavy armor had it."

"CRDL." Pyrrha said without hesitation, as if even my vague description was still more than enough to identify the knuckleheads that I'd seen occupying room 416 a few months prior. "There's a little roof above that suite. For maintenance or something, judging by all the piping. It's where Jaune and I… Used to…" Pyrrha stopped, her voice trailing off as a distant look washed across her face.

I watched Pyrrha carefully. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes at the recollection. Only moments later, however, she regained focus and blinked them back. Impressive, I thought to myself. For the briefest of moments, I'd felt her fond memories of training with Jaune on that roof tugging at the corners of my own mind, vying for control over the veil. Almost as soon as I noticed the feeling though, it abated. It seemed like a lot to hope, but perhaps my companion was beginning to understand how to control her thoughts here in the beyond.

Just then, Raven stormed back down the hall past where we had paused. "I suppose neither of you are all that happy with the situation."

"Definitely not. That was the only consolation, really. Knowing that she hated getting stuck on a team with me as much as I did her." Pyrrha and I headed down the hall to the old suite and watched the doors of rooms 416 and 417 close after Gretchen and I bid each other goodnight. "Let's just jump ahead till morning," I suggested at that point. "The first day of classes was… A bit of an adventure, let's just say."

"Alright," Pyrrha said with a grin at my cryptic statement about our first academic day. I shut my eyes and concentrated. The scene darkened, leaving only a dim outline of the hallway and doors as the mundane pre-bedtime routine sped by. I knew the reach of my own memory would fade as soon as my younger self nodded off, and the scene shown by the veil would skip straight to morning. "It's strange when you fall asleep in these memories," Pyrrha remarked, echoing my own thoughts on the matter. "Like hitting skip on a holovid, almost. Like when you fell from the bridge. We were up on the cliff as it collapsed, you fell, passed out, then then suddenly you and I were standing in the infirmary as you awoke."

"Yeah. It took me a little while to figure out why that was. The Veil, the Beyond. Us. It's memory, all of it. You can't remember what you… Er… What you can't remember..."

"Well uh… Well said," Pyrrha said, smiling wryly.

"Yeahhhh… That sounded a lot better in my head," I admitted. We both laughed, and I leaned up against team STRQ's door at almost the exact instant the veil went from dim to completely dark, the moment sleep must've found my younger self. Pyrrha and I stood in silence in the gloom for a few seconds before I realized something strange was happening.

"This is taking longer than usual," Pyrrha pointed out from somewhere to my right. As if to punctuate what she'd said, a familiar electronic whirr echoed in the otherwise dead-silence of the still air of the hallway. I knew that sound. The deadbolt on the dorm door. I turned to look as our surroundings again were lit by moonlight filtering in through the windows in the common area at the end of the hall. The light on the door had flashed green… But why?

I was utterly perplexed for a moment before I realized something. "My scroll!" I said, reaching for the clip on my belt where I used to keep the device in life. It was still there, forever attached where it had been the instant I had died. "It must've gotten close enough to the lock to activate it when I leaned against the door… But I don't, I mean, how could that be possible?"

"Memory," Pyrrha said after a moment. "It's… It's as if your scroll remembers being able to unlock the lock, or vice-versa."

"That… I mean, I guess that makes sense," I replied, grabbing the handle on my door before the lock could re-engage. To my surprise, it turned, and I swung the door open slowly. I saw Qrow first, sprawled out in the exact same clothes he'd gone to sleep in, atop the covers he hadn't bothered to pull back. Next, Tai lay peacefully on his back, snoring softly. Finally, the door opened the rest of the way and I saw myself, lying on my side with my head tilted towards the doorway. I'd never watched myself sleep before. It was a strange feeling, almost creepy, really. At that at that moment though, that wasn't bothering me much. The Veil seemed… Different. The images I could see were different. Hazy. Almost like a dream.

"What's going on?" Pyrrha whispered urgently. "You're asleep, aren't you? We shouldn't be able to see this." There was no reason for her hushed tone, I thought. My sleeping younger self couldn't hear her. Habit, born of her considerate nature, probably. I shrugged.

"No idea. Maybe it's because…" Before I finished with my best-guess answer, I saw my own eyes snap open. My teenage self looked straight at me, then over to Pyrrha, and then back to me again, brow furrowing and eyes narrowing with obvious confusion and suspicion. Pyrrha caught my eye movement and turned to me.

"I think… I think you can see us."

"That's impossible. How could I…" I looked again at my younger self, whose attention was fixated directly on my shadowed face. "You know… I think you're right. We need to get out of here, Pyrrha."

"Why? What could be wrong with—"

"Go. Now," I guided my companion by her shoulder quickly down the hallway before taking the lead as we headed towards the stairs. The two of us trotted down a few flights of stone steps before I turned to face Pyrrha. "I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about this. I've never interacted with myself before in my memories, and you're right. I could definitely see us."

"There's got to be an explanation, Summer."

"If there is, I sure don't know it," I replied, utterly perplexed.

Pyrrha began to stroke her ponytail nervously. "I wonder…"

"What?"

"Nothing. It's a silly theory."

"Let's hear it. I'm grasping at straws same as you."

"It's just that… What you said earlier. About the Beyond being a realm of memory, but that memory having no reach into our minds while we slept in life."

I raised my eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Well, there's another unquantifiable thing that governs our minds while we sleep, in the same way memory does while we're awake. Dreams."

"Dreams? Dr—" My eyes widened as I looked away from Pyrrha, frenetic thoughts about the implications if she were right racing through my mind. That made too much sense. Looking around at the railing, and the skylight above, it was clear that the image shown us by the veil here was of a completely different quality. Dimmer, duller colors that all tended towards gray around the periphery of my vision, like shadows given the barest semblance of color and form. "I think you're right," I said slowly, turning back to my companion. "I think… I think we might've entered a whole different reality, Pyrrha. This isn't the Beyond. Not what I'm used to, anyway. This is some kind of… Dreamworld."

"And you've never experienced this before?"

"No. As long as I've been here, no." Suddenly, movement caught my eye at the bannister that bordered the stairs opposite the stairwell from me. A crimson glow, the rippling outline of a younger, pajama-clad me. "What in the…"

"What?" Pyrrha's eyes snapped to where I was looking, but just searched for several seconds like she just couldn't see the girl who I watched stand slowly and begin looking me up and down. "What do you see?"

"Myself," I answered as softly as I could, as I made direct eye contact with me for the first time. The moment seemed to drag on forever, before I finally looked back to Pyrrha. "Run." I uttered the simple word quietly, but urgently, and Pyrrha turned behind me to follow close on my heels as I sprinted down flight after flight of stairs.

"Hey, come back here!" I called out after us.

Pyrrha and I didn't slow down, each of us taking two steps at a time towards the ground floor where I hoped we could break out onto the thoroughfare and vanish. As soon as we reached the lowest landing, I pushed through the double doors and out into the cool night air, grabbed Pyrrha, and concentrated as I willed my aura to flow around us both. In a blizzard of snow-white petals, we disappeared, just as the doors flung open again and the now-visible teenager that had followed us burst from the dormitory. Young Summer searched the quiet, empty school grounds, quite unaware that Pyrrha and I were standing but a few meters from her. Fortunately, though I could see her when she went invisible, she could not see me. I guess all those years of training paid off. "Hm. Rookie," I murmured amusedly under my breath. As if convinced after a moment that we'd gotten away, my younger self turned to go back inside, but not before seeming to notice something strange and turning back towards the courtyard.

Courtyard.

Wait… What? The western stairwell was supposed to lead to the main thoroughfare off the commons… Why were we in the old memorial courtyard? "Something's not right," I whispered to Pyrrha.

"We're not in the right place. But it's… It's just a dream, right? Since when do dreams make sense? Maybe this is what counts as normal," Pyrrha murmured back.

As Pyrrha spoke, the old Zoroaster monument trembled and tilted. I did a double-take when I realized that not only was the statue beginning to sink into the ground, but it was being swallowed up by a noisome black fluid I'd become all-too-familiar with on my many journeys. A pit of annihilation. The evil spawning pits of pure darkness from which the grimm were born. "There's nothing normal about that, dream or not," I replied, indicating the pool. It wasn't just the statue that was beginning to sink… Within moments, the pool expanded to a size far larger than any I'd ever encountered out in the wilds. The whole courtyard was in danger of disappearing before long, paver by paver crumbling and sinking into oblivion at a disconcerting rate. My younger self seemed transfixed by the foul flood and didn't move, but I pulled Pyrrha back towards the nearest archway before we were cut off from that escape.

"What about you?" Pyrrha asked in protest, indicating young Summer as she stood in imminent danger of falling into the enormous pool.

"It'll be fine. It's just a bad dream. It can't actually hurt me."

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked, concern written all over her features. At that moment, the eerie black tide began to lap against the raised stone border of the courtyard, upon which my younger self stood. The block of hewn granite that was my purchase cracked right between my feet, and I slipped, first one foot, then both becoming ensnared in the pool. There was nothing we could do, even if we tried.

I wasn't sure, not at all. A lot of what had been happening since we'd accidentally unlocked this dream realm was beyond my understanding. Nonetheless, I held fast to Pyrrha's arm, in case she was considering doing anything foolishly heroic. We both watched as I sank deeper and deeper, helpless to pull myself free. Nothing worked, no matter how desperately I tried… And that only made me try harder, sinking faster and faster as I did. That was, until movement towards what would have been the center of the courtyard caught my eye.

The surface of the expansive pool began to roil violently as some kind of enormous grimm began clawing to extricate itself from its depths. Young Summer froze, quitting her efforts to escape and stared, horrified at the tremendous shape that hauled itself from the mire. I recognized it immediately as it emerged, as it seemed so did Pyrrha. I felt my companion tense and heard her dismayed and shocked gasp. Almost instinctually, I pulled her closer. It was the same tremendous, dragon-like creature that had been laying siege to Beacon Tower the night the academy fell… The night Pyrrha died. The fear I felt radiating from her aura now was the same I'd felt from her that night.

"What… Why is that thing here?" As if in answer to Pyrrha's question, the dragon screeched, cocking its head to the side and glaring at the two of us with three unblinking orange eyes. It could definitely see us. I uncloaked to save energy, not knowing if I'd need it or not, and looked back momentarily to where my younger self had been seconds earlier. I was gone, completely submerged beneath the surface of the summoning pool. Hopefully the dream would end, and soon. The grimm pulled itself towards us with the two dexterous claws on its wings, crushing the granite masonry of the arch we'd retreated through with but a touch as it hauled its own massive bulk through the breezeway after us. More of the vile substance that filled the pool dripped from its body, eating through the pavers like acid and creating many smaller pools beneath its body and wings that bore forth dozens of lesser grimm within seconds.

"Get ready, Pyrrha. Big, black, and grumpy here wants a fight. Let's give it to him," I said confidently, drawing Scourge and extending Thorn as I had done thousands of times in the past. It felt good to have weapons in hand once again. "Alright. Cover your eyes, it's about to get kinda bright." I looked over to my companion, expecting to see her bronze shield and transforming xiphos at the ready, but the sight that I found instead caused my heart to sink. Pyrrha hadn't moved, paralyzed with fear, her weapons sheathed. "Pyrrha? Pyrrha! Pyrr—Oh, crap."

I'd taken my focus from our adversary for too long, noticing the flaming ball of energy that had been building in the dragon's maw only when it was already too late. With a terrible, screeching roar, it released the blast of searing flame straight for the two insignificant human specs before it. I desperately attempted to counter with my inborn silver-eyed power, but it was too late. I felt the heat—as in, actually felt it—the pain as real as any I'd felt when I'd been alive. But it was barely even momentary. The scene went black. I could feel myself floating in limbo for what could've been seconds, minutes, or hours before the ground beneath my feet again became solid. Shapes formed around me. My room, back at Beacon. Tai was shaking my younger self awake from the violent nightmare, with Qrow standing concernedly nearby.

We were back in the Beyond. The afterlife I knew, not that strange and terrible Dreamworld. I turned to Pyrrha, whose eyes darted back and forth, a fearful stare unable to focus on anything in particular. Tears streamed down her face. I couldn't say I blamed her one bit, either. "Are you okay?" I asked, kneeling beside her. She said nothing. She didn't even acknowledge my presence. I guided her chin with my hand, directing her eyes to look at mine. For an unnerving moment, Pyrrha seemed to look right through me, a thousand-yard stare I'd seen haunt the eyes of many experienced fighters whose fear had grown beyond their own ability to convey with normal expression. The moment of trauma passed, however, and her breathing slowed. Her eyes focused back on my face and I wiped her tears aside. "It's alright. You're safe. We'll be alright, Pyrrha."

"No."

"We are. Trust me, we are. We're back in my memories. We're safe."

"No. No one is safe from that… Thing. No one can kill it."

I began to understand, then. Pyrrha had always acted so fearless in the face of overwhelming odds in the past, but something about that dragon… It got to her. Something so big, so terrible and strong… What could a single human warrior do to kill such a creature? "I don't know about that," I said, giving my best effort at a confident smile. "It's never fought a Silver-Eyed Warrior before." I winked, willing a brief flicker of silvery light to flash from my irises.

"I… But what about Ruby? Didn't she fight it, the night I… The night I died?"

"No. She never did. That dragon took one blast of her power and, well, it shut down. It couldn't move. It's still frozen with fear at the top of the tower as far as I know. So, you see, there _is_ a way to stop it. It's not hopeless." I hoped I sounded much more confident than I felt on that note. I'd paralyzed huge monsters with my light before… And they always broke free, eventually.

Pyrrha seemed to consider what I'd said for a moment, before sighing shakily. "I hope you're right, Summer. I… Wait," Pyrrha paused, looking past me. "Are Qrow and Tai… Wearing skirts?"

* * *

Qrow spun to his right at the very last possible moment as Tai shot past where our teammate had been standing, rolling out of the leap and kicking off the wall to re-direct his momentum back at Qrow. "C'mere!" The blonde boy cried, tonfas swinging to meet either side of Qrow's head.

"Too slow," Qrow replied evenly, slipping back to dodge the follow-up strike and backflipping easily away. Tai planted his feet and swung again and again, pressuring his way forward but ever just a fraction of a moment too late to tag Qrow with the weapons that were naught but golden blurs in his hands. It was an impressive display, but I could see Tai becoming incensed at his inability to land a hit.

"Get him, Tai!" I heard Val holler from the stands beside me.

"Stop running and fight, you dodgy little—" _CLANK!_ The weapon impact rang out through the auditorium as Qrow drew Curse and met Tai's tonfas, both boys fighting to out-muscle the other as each returned his opponent's glare. Tai's look softened into amusement after a moment. "Finally. About time you quit messing around."

"Didn't want you to get too tired out with all that flailing around you're doin'," Qrow shot back. His finger tightened on the trigger of his weapon, and with a mechanical whirr the twin shotgun barrels of Curse rotated forward to inside Tai's guard, leveling at his chest. "Sorry, but this ain't gonna tickle," Qrow warned as his finger tightened on his trigger.

Tai, aware of the danger, broke the standoff and backed up quickly, matching the angles of Curse's shotgun barrels with the concussion guns on each short end of his tonfas perfectly. Both boys pulled their triggers simultaneously, and the pair of twin blasts met at point-blank range, spattering the area with spall as steel buckshot and heavy frangible slugs slammed into each other. Both Tai and Qrow's auras rippled as they were peppered with hundreds of tiny impacts from their own and their opponent's weapons. A shockwave from the violent blasts that met between the combatants hurled them both unceremoniously backwards, with only Qrow able to handspring neatly out of the explosion. Tai almost landed cleanly, but slipped, sprawling to the floor.

Qrow looked as if he'd been waiting for just exactly this moment, lunging forward to the offensive for the first time since the bout had started. Curse sailed through the air in a powerful downward strike that looked like it could've cloven a grimm in two. Tai fired his tonfa, the force enough to propel him on his butt back far enough to avoid the swing, which slammed into the floor just between his legs. "Whew. Close one," Tai taunted, smiling as he kicked back once again to avoid the follow up attack. It almost looked as if Tai were breakdancing away from the rapid salvo of blows that Qrow fired off at his retreating opponent, kicking himself left then right and twisting around to narrowly dodge each strike. Now it was Qrow's turn to become frustrated, his obvious annoyance only adding speed and intensity to his attacks as Tai continued to back up. I realized then that Tai had plenty of opportunity to get up, to evade far enough out to either side and stand, but he didn't. He was baiting Qrow. What kind of strategy it was to let oneself get cornered against the wall of the fighting stage was beyond me, though.

"Gotcha!" Qrow finally cried as Tai had backed up as far as he could, now completely trapped against the hardened steel of the sparring stage's wall. Curse's blade sang through the air straight for Tai's face as Qrow put all his weight behind the attack. At the last possible instant, however, Tai raised his tonfa, aligning them with his forearms and crossing them over his chest to stop the blow. The resounding metallic crash echoed around the room, and a cheer went up from the class. The blonde boy grinned, and Qrow scowled at the failed finishing move. "The heck're you smilin' about?" Qrow growled, clicking his trigger outward and angling his shotguns again.

"Gotcha," Tai said from the floor. With that, Tai extended the hooked axe-blades from the ventral sides of his tonfa. Shooting one arm forward and twisting the other, he managed to capture both rear and leading edges of Curse, pulling his arms tightly outward as if they were a powerful clamp. Before Qrow could react, Tai wrapped one heel around his opponent's forward ankle and pinned it by planting his opposite heel against the black-haired boy's shin. Qrow instinctively tried to yank Curse away from Tai's weapons, but Tai was expecting the tug. In one movement, Tai torqued the captured blade of Qrow's sword to the side and shoved the telescoping grip into his gut, effectively doubling the force of his opponent's pull and sending him off-balance. Qrow stumbled backward, unable to catch his footing due to his trapped ankle and fell flat on his back, the wind driven out of him.

Tai flipped onto his feet and kicked off, firing one tonfa to propel him in a spin not unlike the way he'd done against the alpha creep during initiation. The other tonfa was already spinning, multiplying the impact force of his right arm as he drew it across his body. Inside a tenth of a second, Tai had twisted all the way around, and his tonfa met Qrow's wrist with a _THWUMP_ that was audible all the way from the stands. Curse flew out of Qrow's hand, clattering across the stage, and I winced. That looked like it hurt. Qrow's aura flashed, a ripple of red energy radiating out from the point of impact, as I looked over at Raven. She stuck out like a sore thumb in the crowd, the only one of our classmates not cheering either boy on. I couldn't understand why she looked so seemingly disinterested even though the aura level projection on the wall behind the combatants showed her brother's aura nearing the fifteen percent mark. Did she know something we didn't, or did she really just not care?

Tai spun out of his leap, landing easily between Qrow and Curse as the former pulled himself from the ground. Qrow opened and closed the hand that had been struck, checking for pain or broken bones, wincing a little and massaging his wrist before smiling. "All that just to disarm me? S'alotta work for not much payoff."

"Next time you won't be so lucky," Tai replied, readying his tonfas for a follow up attack on his weaponless foe.

"See, now that's the thing," Qrow growled confidently as Tai sensed his opening and charged in once again, intent on finishing Qrow off. The backhanded tonfa strike flashed through the air for Qrow's head… But never landed. To Tai's—and everyone else's—utter surprise, Qrow caught the blow with his injured hand. "I'm never that lucky." Qrow's opposite hand shot in close and grabbed Tai's other wrist, immobilizing both tonfas, before hauling back and headbutting Tai straight in the nose. Tai's golden aura flashed as it was overwhelmed by the sudden attack, and a stream of blood flowed from one of his nostrils as he roared in pain. Qrow didn't let up, either. Letting go of Tai's left arm, he planted a right uppercut straight into Tai's chin, then spun around and slammed a left backfist into his opponent's temple. All three hits drained Tai's aura by massive amounts, more than you would think an unarmed assault possibly could. Tai staggered, his vision probably blurred from that last hit.

I heard the class collectively gasp at the sudden table-turning assault. "Don't let him hit you like that, Tai!" Val shouted, as both boy's auras had now reached to within a few points of the match cutoff.

Tai growled, gritting his teeth through the pain of the trio of powerful blows. Flipping one of his tonfa around and holding it by the long striking end, he again extended the axe-blade. As Qrow reached up to block the ensuing downward strike, however, Tai tossed away his other tonfa and reached right through Qrow's divided guard, grabbing him like a ragdoll by the collar and slinging him over his shoulder. Qrow hit the stage, head first, his grin evaporating. I imagined getting choke-slammed like that would take a smug smile off of even the most confident fighter's face.

This was it. The next hit would decide the match… That was, if Professor Hargrave was indeed going by tournament rules. Both boy's auras were at critical levels. The class was on their feet screaming at one or the other to end it. Tai set up for a ground-and-pound coup de grâce, hauling back with his right arm as his opponent stared defiantly up at him from the floor. As Tai's bodyweight dropped to add power to the rapidly falling punch, Qrow surprised the audience once again, tilting his head only ever so slightly and allowing the punch to fall as he reached up and took hold of the back of Tai's head. Qrow then brought his right knee up, pulling down on Tai and forcing the knee strike to thud into Tai's head at the very same moment Tai's fist glanced across Qrow's temple. Gold and red flashed together as what remained of each boy's auras crackled at the other's finishing strikes.

Both holoscreens that displayed the boys' aura levels flashed red at the exact same instant, indicating what would count as an aura-level elimination. A spinning red symbol appeared next to each name on the screens, before projecting a number. Tai was holding steady at nine percent of full-strength. Qrow, pulling himself to his feet, looked up and saw his own number before shooting a braggartly look at Tai. "Ha. Ten percent. Looks like you owe me a little money, Tai." Mixed reactions from the class intermingled around me. Val and Talia's voices could be heard expressing their dismay at the outcome. Understandable, considering they were each now out twenty lien. Some students cheered or whistled, but most murmured about how close the fight had been. I looked over at Raven once again, unsurprised to see her face betraying hardly a hint of emotion, except perhaps an ever-so-slight upward twitch at the corner of her lips that I wasn't even sure I saw.

Tai hissed at the pain of his own touch, tenderly checking the kneecap-shaped bruise just above his right eye and wiping away some of the blood from his upper lip and chin with his sleeve. He threw a glance towards the scoreboards, saw the percent scores, and sighed. "Yeah, yeah. I guess you got me."

Hargrave was already on the stage and striding towards the fighters as Qrow extended a hand to haul Tai to his feet. "Hm. Impressive, for first year students. Far from flawless, however. Mr. Xiao Long, your inability to focus your aura in the area of an impending strike nearly cost you the match earlier and resulted in you getting blood all over my stage. Mr. Branwen, waiting on lucky breaks like you did is going to get you killed one day, if you rely on your opponent making a fatal mistake before you do."

"Worked out for me pretty good so far, mister," Qrow said with a shrug.

"Irrelevant. Against a more competent opponent, you would be dead long before you perceived an opening in their technique that you could effectively exploit, especially with your apparently limited repertoire of predictable offensive techniques."

"Limited? Predicable? Seriously?" Qrow inquired annoyedly.

Hargrave scowled. "Did you not hear me, young man?"

"No, I did. I'm still waiting for you to explain it. I won the fight, didn't I?"

"You both lost, as far as I am concerned."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"And it never will, not to you. Not until you realize that combat is not a game. Its purpose is not some primal expression of dominance, nor is it sport. Combat," Hargrave thundered as he turned towards the class, "is simply a function of survival. If you can survive your engagements out in the real world, one at a time, you will be fulfilling your purpose as huntsmen and huntresses. One cannot hope to survive if he uses all of his energy against his first opponent, for the very next will surely be his end. For this reason, while in my classroom I expect to see you all working to master your efficiency in battle. Aura distribution, weapon use, energy management, semblance timing. All of these are aspects of true combat you will need should you ever manage to graduate.

"Moreover, I must iterate: survival and victory do not always go hand in hand. Knowing when to retreat is a discipline, not a weakness. No doubt each of you thinks that your minor abilities somehow make you superhuman, however this is patently false. You possess each of the exact same weaknesses as any person. You can bleed, you can die. I have seen too many young men and women come through those doors who thought they were invincible. Believe you me, they walked out again with just the opposite notion. And most of them are still alive, as far as I know. Now. Professor Ozpin, do you have anything you would like to add?"

The headmaster stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Regarding your philosophies on combat? No, Symon, I believe you covered it quite well, and I couldn't agree more. Students, I urge you all to listen well to what Professor Hargrave has to say regarding this topic. It is for his vast knowledge in this arena that I urged him, begged him even, to stay on as Dean and head combat instructor when he resigned his position as headmaster and I took over."

"Hmph. Liked my old office better." The Dean stated gruffly, nodding his assent. "Still, times change. Your headmaster can keep the administrative responsibilities his office demands. Council meetings and bureaucracy are naught but a burden on this old Huntsman. In this classroom, I can forge each and every one of you into warriors. That is," Hargrave added with a pointed look at Qrow, "Those of you that will listen."

Qrow rolled his eyes and grumbled something, drawing an even sharper glance from our instructor. Hargrave didn't fire back, however, apparently choosing to ignore the snide comment in favor of shooing the recalcitrant student and our other teammate back up into the stands. I breathed a sigh of relief at that. The last thing the team needed was for Qrow's smartass attitude to land us all in hot water with the Dean.

"Now," Ozpin continued after calmly watching the exchange, an amused smile playing across his face. "Yesterday, most of you were tested on your ability to make safe landfall from terminal velocity. Suffice it to say, many of your techniques left much to be desired. Given this academy's preference for experiential over theoretical training, the remainder of this block of instruction will be spent at the Beacon cliffs." A murmur arose from the class, some apprehensive about repeating the leap from the high plateau down into the grimm-infested forest below, some more than game to give the launch another go. "Are there any questions?" The headmaster inquired as we stood to head to the other side of campus.

"Yeah, Sir. Can I go change?" Qrow asked as he reached the bench where I was seated. Several of our classmates snickered. I found it hard to keep a straight face too, a mental image passing through my mind of Qrow's skirt billowing up in the wind as he tumbled towards the ground.

"Mr. Branwen, I'm surprised," Ozpin replied coolly with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Considering you and your sister opted not to participate in the launch during initiation, I would've thought you would be more eager to test that aspect of your abilities."

"Wait, what?" I looked from Raven to Qrow as the latter sat down next to me. "What does he mean?" I whispered, noting the unease that spread across my teammate's face.

"Why, it's quite simple, Miss Rose. You were not team leader at the time, so of course this doesn't reflect on team STRQ as a whole, but the Branwen twins left well before the official beginning of initiation yesterday morning, no doubt intending to get a head start on the challenge itself. It did them no good in the end, so Professor Hargrave and I decided not to take any disciplinary action. Now, if that will be all, please follow your instructor to the cliffs and…" The headmaster paused, grinning. "Happy landings, students."


	10. Chapter 10: Team Meeting

**Chapter 10: Team Meeting**

"So, who's bright idea was that?" For the first time since team STRQ had been formed, Qrow, Raven, Tai, and I were all in our room together. This initial team meeting was going about as well as I figured it would, too. Tai sat at the foot of his bed, and I beside him on a chair I'd dragged over from the desk while we both waited for Qrow to answer. Raven just gave a sort of half-laugh, half indignant huff as we grilled her brother, slipping in a pair of earbuds and laying back against her headboard. I knew better than to ask her.

"Why does it matter? We tried it, there were more grimm than we were expecting, we got held up, and we ended up showing up behind you guys anyway. You heard the headmaster, we're not getting punished, so we're good."

"That's not really the issue here, Qrow. My problem is that you guys think you can get away with stuff like that, and it's gonna hurt us as a team eventually."

From her bed in the corner, Raven mumbled, "Maybe if we'd been able to get our hands on the Dean's tablet…"

"That's past, Raven. I'm talking about the next four years. You didn't get to use me for your little scheme. It's over. Deal with it."

"Just saying," Raven said, flipping through songs on her scroll. I decided right then not to address her at all from this point on, unless it couldn't be helped. We'd probably get more done without her 'input' anyway.

"Alright, you've made your point," Qrow said after I turned back from his sister. "Raven and me just aren't used to having all these dumb rules you gotta follow."

"I'm not either, man. I still do, just 'cos I know that's how this world works. You gotta follow some rules. Going around making your own just makes it so no one trusts you, then you're really outta luck."

"Hm. I'm outta that anyway."

"Geez. With that attitude you are," Tai said with a grin. "Dude. You're at a school designed to train you how to be a badass. Quit being such a downer."

Qrow grinned. "Oh, I'm already a badass. Barely had to try to take you out back in class."

"Pffft. Please, you got me by one percent aura-level. If that'd been a real fight—"

"I still woulda handed you your butt."

I rolled my eyes. "Guys, guys. Testosterone. Down. It's getting stuffy in here." Tai and Qrow both grinned. "Alright. Maybe we should start back at square one. Learn a little more about each other. Anyone want to go first?" I asked hopefully.

"Why? Pretty sure I already know everything I need to about everyone here," Raven grumbled annoyedly, eyes still glued to her scroll-screen.

"Kinda goes back to that trust thing we were talking about a second ago." Tai interjected before I could fling any inflammatory remark back.

"The only person ever worth trusting is yourself. And even then," Raven shot a derisive look at Qrow before going back to whatever she was doing on the device. Qrow never returned his sister's glance, but I could tell that for some reason, the comment had stung.

"Alright," I said after an uncomfortable moment passed. "I'll go first, then. I was raised all over, lived in all four of the kingdoms at one point or another. Favorite place so far has gotta've been a little village in Anima, right on the coast of Lake Matsu. My dad's a huntsman. Bandit tribes kept him busy while we lived there, but an old friend of his ran a small combat school there so that's where I'd train whenever he was off on a bounty mission or raid." I couldn't help but notice the Branwen twins' share a glance at that, but I didn't think anything of it. "But mostly my dad trained me, especially when I got old enough to come on short missions with him. My semblance is invisibility," I willed myself to disappear for a moment before reappearing and continuing, "And I fight close-in with my whip, Scourge, and my sword here, Thorn."

"Also, you're a huge nerd," Qrow said with a laugh. I grinned.

"Good of you to notice," I said, bowing deeply.

"You forgot to tell us your name," Tai joked. I shot him a dry look before leaning over and shoving him. He played along, sprawling exaggeratedly across his bed.

"It's Petals," Qrow mumbled under his breath.

"I heard that," I said, glancing with mock irritation in his direction. "Seriously, if we don't even know each other's names at this point, we've really got issues. Who wants to go next?"

"I got it," Tai said, sitting back up. "I'm Taiyang Xiao Long, everyone just calls me Tai. Can't really say I lived anywhere fancy. Kinda just came up on the streets around here. Parents were a couple of druggies, couldn't hang on to a job, got into some bad debt with the wrong people. Moved down from Mantle with me when I was barely old enough to stand, trying to hide or whatever. Ended up disappearing, and I never did find out what happened to 'em. Don't really care, honestly. I ended up in a home, in and out of the system for years with different foster families and whatnot, till I finally just got sick of goin' back and decided I could make it on my own on the streets here. Ended up rolling with… Well, not the best kind of people. Heh. Just like my folks, I guess. My tonfas were a gift from a cop who coulda arrested me for somethin' I did a while back, but ended up lettin' me go. Good guy, turned out to be the closest thing to a father I ever had. I made some… Slight modifications to them, in the combat school I went to over on Patch."

"Patch? That's… I've lived there the whole last year! I went to Signal too! How come I never noticed you?"

Tai laughed. "Not surprising. Val and I kinda thought you were a little weird, always off by yourself with your hood up and whatnot. You were kinda an introvert."

"I wasn't _that_ bad!"

"You totally were. Not saying I blame you, shy-girl. Especially now since I know you moved all over. Must've been pretty used to being an outsider, I'm guessing. You just did your thing, we did ours, and I mean, we never really crossed paths. No big deal."

A wave of self-consciousness hit me as my teammate spoke. I mean, I knew I was quiet most of the time but… was I really that awkward? I decided to change the subject, once I realized I already knew the answer to that. "So… Your tonfas. They have names?" I asked.

"Nah. Only really cool weapons have names. Mine're kinda… Normal, I guess."

"Oh, that's not true. Your weapons _are_ really cool. _And_ they have a backstory. They totally deserve a name."

"Not everybody _has_ to name their weapons," Raven said, sighing exasperatedly. So, she _was_ listening.

"Yeah, but lots of huntsmen do."

"Yeah, and they're all cu—"

"Raven," Qrow raised his hand annoyedly as he interjected, talking over his sister to interrupt the crass insult.

Tai shrugged. "Hm. Maybe I will name 'em now, just to annoy Raven." Qrow and I both laughed at that.

Raven grumbled something before shrugging. "I don't think you quite grasp how little I actually care," our recalcitrant teammate shot before turning the volume up on her music and focusing back on her scroll.

"So, what's your semblance?" I asked after returning Qrow's shrug at his sister's behavior, curious and already trying to envision how team-attacks might work between Tai and myself.

"Oh, nothing too fancy. It's… Well, here. I'll show you. Get your aura up." Tai stood, activating his own golden energy, which flashed and rippled across his body.

"Okayyyy…" I said confusedly, standing and concentrating, willing my own crimson protective field to activate.

"Alright. I'm not gonna hit you that hard. I don't really need to. I mean, it works better if I do, but I can kinda get the same effect either way."

"I still don't get it. What works better?"

"This," Tai said as he positioned himself to my left. He threw a simple palm-strike, which I avoided out of instinct. "Oh, come on. Hold still, it's not gonna kill you."

"Sorry, sorry. I just… I dunno, I don't know what you're gonna do, so it's weirding me out is all."

"Just trust me. You'll be fine. Aight, here. Ready?" I nodded, still unsure if I really was or not. Tai lined up the strike again, as Qrow watched with rapt attention. I even saw Raven glance up from her scroll, trying to hide her interest in whatever Tai was getting ready to do but still clearly intrigued. When he struck, I felt the weirdest sensation, like a crackling, tingling numbness just before his palm struck my shoulder, _right through my aura_. It was like he'd used his own protective field to overload mine.

"Whoa, _woah, whoa._ Wait a minute," I said as I stared at the spot his gentle strike had landed. My aura was struggling to crackle back over the numbed area, fizzling and crackling uselessly until I focused on the spot and, with a little more effort than normal, willed it to return. "You just ignored my aura. How did you… When did you learn to do that?"

"Figured out I could do it in a fistfight with a kid back in combat school. Actually… Heh. It was Val I was fighting with. It's like I just will a ton of my aura to one spot, usually my fist or my weapons, and the next hit can crack through an opponent's aura and strike them directly. Leaves me kinda vulnerable for the next few seconds, so I gotta land the hit or I'm screwed." Tai turned to Qrow. "That's how you jacked me up so good with that combo in our little fight earlier. Most of my aura was in my weapons, and you just caught the hit like it was nothing."

"Oh, it wasn't nothing. That freakin' hurt, man." Qrow affirmed. "Way more than I thought it would, but I guess I know why now. My hand's even still a little numb."

"Still. You tanked it, then dang near broke my nose and threw that backhand that felt like I got hit by a truck for a second. You're tougher than you look, for a skinny little guy."

"Heh. Gotten my ass beat more than a few times back home. Sometimes for no reason at all. I know how to take a hit, is all."

"Must've been a pretty rough tribe you guys were raised in," I said, glad that the two of them seemed to have built some mutual respect at least.

"Yeah, you could say that. We weren't always with them though. Raven and I were born in a village that… Well, it doesn't exist anymore."

"What happened?"

"None of your damn business," Raven growled before Qrow could reply.

"Hey, Raven, your brother had the speaking ball. Howabout you shuddup and let him answer how he wants?" I couldn't help but smile at Tai's blunt retort on behalf of the Branwen brother.

"It's aight, Tai. She doesn't do all my thinking for me." Qrow shot me a look as he said that, and I remembered back to our earlier conversation after I had been released from the infirmary. "Raven and I were born in a little village called… Er… Kurōbā? Kurūbo? I dunno. Can't remember exactly, 's been so long. I remember the banner though. Looked like a clover. Anyway, we couldn't've been more than five or six when one day the village was wiped out by grimm while Raven and I were out playing in the woods. Came back that night to find everyone dead. We lived in the ruins for a little while, before our tribe happened by. The chief took us in, and that was that. Came here to get a bit more training, like I told you a while ago."

I scratched my head. "Wait… Kurōbā? I've heard that name before. I think… Yeah, one of my friends back when I was living in Anima said she was born there too. Weird though, I could've sworn she'd said the place was raided by bandits before the grimm attacked."

Qrow looked back at Raven for just a split second, and his sister shrugged apathetically. "Maybe there were other survivors, and maybe the bandits did attack first. We don't know. Both of us were out playing when it happened."

"Yeah. Something like that," Qrow said, looking back to me. "How it really all went down, doesn't matter. We got back and everyone we knew was dead. The end."

Tai and I looked at each other, as if wordlessly commenting on the Branwen's rather bleak outlook on the events of their past, yet neither of us seeming particularly surprised either. I couldn't help but remember, though, what Raven had said about their father the other day. That had clearly been a harsh memory. Painful, almost as if they'd watched him die. But now they were saying that they'd been out in the woods when their village was attacked… Something didn't add up, but I thought nothing more of it and decided it was probably best to change the subject. "So, I saw Raven's semblance back in Ancient Vale. Those portals. Got us out of a tight spot, but she needed you outside before it would've done us any good. So, what, is that some kind of twin connection you two have or something?"

"Yeah. Well, it can connect to anyone…" Qrow's voice trailed as he realized that Raven was glaring at him. "I mean, to uh, to anywhere near me. No more than like, ten meters or something. But you get it." What was her problem _now?_ We all needed to know each other's strengths and abilities in order to be a better team. Why would she be against that?

"So, what about you?" I asked Qrow after staring pointedly at Raven for her having silenced her brother like that.

"Oh, me… I… Well… I've got one, but if I tell ya, I'd have to kill you."

Tai sighed loudly. "Oh, come on, Qrow. We all have to know, it's going to help us in the long run. You got a semblance or not?"

"Hahaha, of course I do. It's like a force field that protects me from attacks and stuff…"

"Idiot. That's aura. Your semblance, tell 'em what your semblance is," Raven snapped at Qrow.

"Oh, ahhh, yeah, I knew that. My semblance is… It's um… Oh yeah! I can uh… See… like, really far. Like… _Really, really_ far."

Tai and I both looked at each other, with me shrugging after a moment. That was a weird ability. Useful, I supposed. But weird. "Like _how_ far?" I pressed.

"Uhhh… _Really_ far."

"Really far, huh?" Tai echoed, a slight mocking edge to his voice.

"Yeah. Really far," Qrow confirmed with an emphatic nod.

Tai's sardonic tone was one thing, but I noticed his gaze narrow and thought that perhaps there may have been an edge of suspicion masked behind his words as he tried to get Qrow to elaborate. "Not gonna… Oh, I dunno, give us any specifics or anything?"

"Nah, I mean, can't really think of any to give you," Qrow said, fidgeting noticeably and casting a look back at his sister. Raven just rolled her eyes.

"It's not important, anyway," she said. "So, you've heard our sad little story, and I've heard yours. Whatever you were hoping would come of that, I don't really care, but I've got better places to be now that it's over."

"Hm. I dunno, Raven, kinda cool seeing what these guys are all about," Qrow said as his sister stood and slung her backpack.

"Well, you I guess you all are just the best of friends now, aren't you?" As she began to walk towards the door, Raven turned again. "Qrow, come find me when you're done acting like you actually care."

"Why are you so damn controlling, Raven?" I asked, just about sick of Raven's disdain for our team and her attitude towards her brother. If he wasn't gonna stick up for himself, I would. I stood from my seat and stepped between Raven and the door.

"Move, cheerleader."

"No. I'm the leader of this team. As long as that's true, you don't get a free pass to just come and go. If we want to succeed, we're all going to need to work together, and we can't as long as you've got an attitude like that. So, what gives? What exactly is your problem, Raven?"

The dark-haired girl sighed. "Listen, I didn't ask to come here. I was told. We both were. For the good of the tribe or whatever. I hope they're all dead by the time Qrow and I get back, I honestly wouldn't care. As far as I see it, me acting like I want to be here is a waste of my time. Just leave me alone, and we'll get along fine."

"Then why don't you just leave? If you're so selfish that you don't even want to help your own people out, the people who pulled you and Qrow from the ruins of your village and raised you, gave you a home, you might as well just run off. There's no point in dragging us down, too." I hated having to be so brutally honest, but by this point I really was just too fed up with Raven's attitude to care how I came across. "We sure don't need you."

"I don't think you really mean that, Summer," Tai said, clearly surprised at the sudden bite to my tone.

"Oh, yes she does," Raven shot back over her shoulder to Tai. Turning back to me, she grinned. "About time you cut the act, trying to be everyone's _friend._ "

"It's not an act. I'm just sick of trying to be _your_ friend."

"Good. Wouldn't have it any other way. Now move," Raven growled as she shouldered past me. I was about to let her go, but as she gripped the door handle and pulled, Qrow brushed past me too.

"Raven, wait," he said, grabbing at her backpack as she slung the door open. He hadn't pulled really hard, but all the same, the worn old leather knapsack ripped all the way down its seams and its contents spilled all across the threshold of the door. Raven froze, and Qrow, Tai and I all stared at the mess that had clattered to the ground all around me. Several wallets, a few scrolls, and a little silver locket in the shape of a nevermore's skull suspended from a silver chain littered the floor at Raven's feet.

"You _IDIOT,_ " Raven said as she turned her attention and boiling temper to her brother.

"What the…" I said, kneeling and picking the locket up off the floor. Standing, I again placed myself in between Raven and her brother. "This is Gretchen's. She lost it the other day! And all these?" I said, indicating all the extra money clips and wallets, and the scrolls that clearly didn't belong to the Branwen twin. "Did you two steal all these too? Is that the 'trouble' you said you were looking to get into on our first day?" I turned to look back at Qrow. His face looked like the mind behind it couldn't decide on whether or not to look angry or ashamed. I felt the silver chain in my hand begin to slip as Raven tried to snatch it from my hand, and I clenched my grip.

"Let go. It's mine!" Raven shouted.

"Like hell it is!" We both strained over the piece of jewelry, each trying to yank it from the other's grasp. The delicate silver rings that made up the chain couldn't take the strain, and the linkage snapped, sending Raven and I sprawling back to either sides of the doorway. I stood, my eyes immediately searching for the locket that had hung from the broken chain. It lay on the floor between Raven and me, its little silvery beak open to reveal a holo of Gretchen and another pretty lady who looked like an older version of my friend. Her mother. "Like I said. Not yours," I growled, looking up as both Raven and I stood. My gaze halted midway up my teammate's frame as I went to look her in the eyes, locking on an unexpected and imminent threat: Raven's hand had gripped the hilt of her sword. She was getting ready to draw on me as she charged back into the room. My weapons were over by my bedside, too far for me to retrieve in time. I tried to leap back and avoid the impending strike, but realized I'd been too slow. This was gonna hurt.

"Raven! No!" Raven's swing as she drew her weapon was so fast I barely saw it. Fortunately, it stopped as soon as it made contact with Curse. Qrow had thrust himself between Raven and me, stopping what would've been a powerful blow.

"Get out of the way, Qrow. I'll handle this," I said, leaping back over Tai's bed to mine and grabbing Scourge and Thorn.

"Yeah, listen to your girlfriend, brother," Raven spat mockingly as she spun around her brother and kicked him in the chin, sending him sprawling back into Tai before again charging me. Perfect. I turned invisible and slid low, punching Raven in the face with Thorn's ringular outer chassis. I kept the blades retracted. The last thing I wanted was to actually injure my teammate, but as Raven recovered and whirled in the direction she knew I must've gone, the string of curses she let out made it pretty clear she wasn't averse to giving me a few nasty cuts.

The tight space we found ourselves fighting in didn't exactly favor my semblance that well either. There weren't very many avenues I could use to evade the sweeping strikes Raven was making to try and find me. I stumbled back in an uncoordinated effort to slide past one attack, only to bump into the desk in the corner. The furniture shifted in response to the collision. "There you are!" Raven shouted, her sword swinging once again, this time directly for me.

 _CLANK!_ Thorn extended in my right hand just in time. I'd timed it so that the two separate halves would slam together like a claw as I actuated the weapon and their pivots were pulled towards each other by the powerful magnetic forces in the ring. It worked just as I'd intended, with Raven's blade caught in the pinch point. Rather than clamp down on solid steel, however, I was surprised to see the interchangeable nodachi blade shatter like glass. licks of flame flashed through the atomized burn dust that must've been encased in the brittle material the blade had been made of. Without missing a beat, Raven's arm snapped back to her scabbard, ejecting the broken lower end of her blade that was still attached to its grip with a pull of the trigger on the hilt. The simple but effective mounting system slid back into place in the rotary chamber, and a little window on the side of the scabbard flashed with a strange rainbow of colors before Raven again pulled the trigger on her weapon's hilt and drew a new blade. This one was the same blue as the freeze dust Scourge used, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees the instant she brandished it.

"Am I gonna have to run you out of blades?" I shouted exasperatedly, even though Raven still couldn't see me.

"I'll send you back to the infirmary before you can!" The new blade sucked the warmth out of the air as it flashed towards me once again. I parried with Thorn, but Raven's attacks were quick. I wasn't a match for her in sword-to-sword combat, that much I could tell. I'd been avoiding using Scourge, but it seemed there was no other option as the fight raged about the room. I unspooled the braid and flicked it, leaving no dust reservoir selected. The last thing we needed was to burn the dorms down on the first day of class. The end of the whip snapped at Raven's left calf, causing Raven to recoil at the sting of the unseen impact.

"Damn you!" She screamed as she unleashed a flurry of freezing swings. I dodged away, kicking off the wall and leaping over her head as she swung at the empty air by the doorframe. As I sailed over her, I again flicked Scourge out and caught her left wrist over her opposite shoulder and yanked. Raven's own fist slammed into her face and she was pulled off balance, and I kicked her left shoulder to add a little power to the spin she now found herself in.

"Stop hitting yourself," I taunted, genuinely pleased with myself for that. Flipping out of the leap, I landed on Tai's bed. The disturbance in the blanket was pretty obvious, and though Raven's left wrist was still caught, she swiped with her sword straight for me. I was prepared to answer the swing with a block from Thorn. What I didn't expect, however, was the pull of the trigger on her hilt that released the ice-blue blade like a freezing, razor-sharp dart before it met my parry. The detached blade shot like an arrow right past my short sword, slinging close over my shoulder and slicing across my aura. The red ripple followed my outline before disappearing again, but it was enough for Raven to grab onto the braid of Scourge and pull herself towards me, aiming a vicious kick that caught my side and drove the wind out of me as I sprawled to the floor. My head hit the bedside table between Tai's and Qrow's beds and I was stunned for a moment. A moment too long, that was.

Raven came charging over the bed straight for where I'd thudded to the ground and planted her booted foot on what would've looked like bare floor to her. She got lucky. Her heel slammed into my shoulder, pinning it, and she grinned menacingly as she drew another blade and raised her sword in preparation for a vicious downward stab.

"Raven, stop, dammit!" Again, Qrow tried to intervene. Raven's murderous gaze snapped to her brother as he charged, forcing her to adjust her stance and ignore me long enough for me to try to scramble back. Unfortunately, the weight of her back foot was still planted on the hem of my cloak, and I couldn't do much to affect an escape. Raven swung the brand-new blade in a high-to-low strike at her brother, which Qrow easily sidestepped. "Too slow, sis!" He shouted as he hauled back with Curse. Raven just grinned, giving her brother some pause as his stroke fell. I knew why she was smiling. She'd meant to miss him. I'd seen the portal open behind Qrow, but he hadn't as he'd rushed in. Raven evaded Qrow's attack and booted her brother through the rift with a spinning back-kick. The receiving end of her semblance opened on the other side of the room, right by Tai. Qrow sprawled past our teammate, groaning and clutching his gut, and Tai looked at the two nearby dimensional rifts as if an idea had just occurred to him.

I saw Tai's grin, but my attention was again drawn by Raven as she turned back to me and again prepared to strike. At the last second before she would have, however, a hand surrounded in a bright golden glow struck through the still-open portal to Raven's right. The full force palm-strike thudded squarely into Raven's temple, and her body locked up as her aura crackled away and she sailed across the room. Tai leapt through the portal the instant before it closed, a satisfied look on his face as he searched the floor where he knew I lay.

I allowed myself to become visible again and accepted Tai's help extricating myself from the awkward position between the beds where I'd landed. Qrow stood from where he'd landed and dashed over to Raven, who was out colder than freeze dust with her aura flickering weakly at the spot where Tai's strike had cracked right through it. Raven's brother snagged both the rotary sheath and sword and backed up across the room as she began to shakily regain consciousness.

"I'll just hang on to these, since you're so dead-set on acting like a psychopath today," he said as he retreated, seemingly prepared just in case she regained her ability to move.

"You soft… Little… Prick…" Raven groaned as she slowly began to turn her head towards her brother.

Just then, I heard the door across the hall swing open as team GLDN dashed over and into our room. "What's going on, Summer?" Gretchen asked, alarm and concern showing on the faces of our entire neighboring team. As my friend spoke, the blue-tinged hologram that still shone from the mouth of her locket caught her eye from where it lay on the ground. She knelt to pick it up. "My locket… How…" Gretchen looked at Raven, the torn backpack on the ground by the foot of Qrow's bed, and back to Raven. "Oh. This what you guys were fighting about?"

"Among other things," I said as I caught my breath from the short but intense fight. I picked the silver chain that had suspended the locket up from where it had come to rest, walking over to Gretchen and holding out my hand to take the little silver nevermore skull. "I'll go fix it. I broke it, after all."

"It's fine, Summer. I'm just glad we found it. Don't worry about it."

"I need some time alone anyway. Give it here. I'll be in the armory." With that, I took the locket and walked off down the hall.

"Summer," Tai called after me just before I rounded the corner out of our suite.

"What, Tai?"

"You good?" My blonde-headed teammate asked as he trotted up to me.

"What do you think? I was just trying to get to know everyone. We can't even handle that. Tell Raven and Qrow better return everything they stole, or when I come back, campus security will be right behind me."

"But they'd be expelled if you got the cops involved!" Tai said, visibly taken aback that I'd go that far.

"Exactly," I grumbled, turning back down the hall. "Team STRQ," I said to myself. "Hmph. What a joke. We're not a team, we're a disaster."


	11. Chapter 11: Rules Are Made To Be

**Chapter 11: Rules Are Made To Be…**

"Summer? Summer! Wait up!"

I stopped walking and sighed as I heard two sets of footsteps trotting up the moonlit cobbles of the thoroughfare to catch me. "What, Qrow?" Turning, I saw that both the younger Branwen twin and Tai had elected to come chase me down. Probably to make sure I didn't actually get campus security involved. Whatever. I still hadn't made up my mind on whether I would or not.

"Listen, Raven'll come around."

"Sorry, but I don't really believe you. Everything she's said and done since I met her has made it pretty clear that she doesn't want to be here. I was wondering how long it'd take for her to just come out and say it."

"You've just got to trust me. I was on your side in that fight, y'know just in case you didn't notice."

"See, now that's what I don't get, Qrow," I replied, exasperated as I turned to face the boys. "I know Raven didn't steal all that stuff by herself the other day. You were the one who suggested you two go find some trouble to get into, so once again, I've got reasons to trust you and reasons not to. Whose side are you on?

Qrow sighed. "Honestly? My own side. I'm the only one who's ever looked out for me, and for Raven it's the same."

Tai squinted as if trying to make sense of what he was hearing. "But, you're brother and sister. Don't you two look out for each other too?"

"No. It's like an unwritten rule we have. We stick together, but we take care of ourselves."

My irritation gave way to confusion at Qrow's statement. "Why? From what I've seen it really looks like she can't stand you sometimes. What's the point of even sticking together?"

"You might not expect this, Summer, but it's pretty simple. We stick around each other because it's the right thing to do. We're brother and sister. We're all the other has left. Watching each other's backs isn't really part of that deal though. And there's… There's a reason for that." Qrow cast his eyes down as I'd seen him do a few times already, and I couldn't help but think he wanted to say something else just then. I was about to just tell him to spit it out, but it was Tai who actually took a step towards our teammate and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Got somethin' eating you, man? I dunno about your sis, but I guarantee you can talk to us about it."

Qrow sighed again, then raised his head. "Screw it. You two should know. My semblance. I lied to you guys back in the room."

"I figured that much. 'Seeing really far'? Come on."

"Yeah. Well, as lame as that one sounded it'd be better than what I actually have. I'm bad luck."

"Will you quit saying that?" I chided.

"No, Summer, you don't understand. I'm bad luck, as in, that's actually my semblance. People around me get hurt. Things break. Enemies make mistakes. You tripped the other day, the day I met you. I'm willing to bet that was my fault, because it happened the second you passed me. That's the real reason I went over and helped you up, not because I was being a gentleman or anything stupid like that."

"But how can that be a semblance? What, do you just choose when to give people bad luck or something?"

Qrow smiled. "I wish. No, it's totally random. Anyone near me is gonna have a rough time of things. Doesn't matter, enemy or friend, whatever. Being on a team with me is like walking under a ladder while breaking a mirror and spilling a saltshaker, all while a black cat runs in front of you."

I was certainly glad Qrow was being honest with us but… Well, the truth about his semblance wasn't exactly good news. "So that's what your sister meant when she said you can't even trust yourself."

"Yeah. She holds a lot of the bad crap that's happened to us against me. Its an easy way for her to shed some of the blame, and I've started to think she's right more often than not."

"Well, she's not. That much I can pretty much guarantee. All of the problems she has right now, whether she'll admit it or not, are her own damn fault," I said.

"Hm." Qrow grunted after a moment. "Well, I guess it's nice having someone around who thinks so." He was silent, but then his eyes looked back to me. "So, uh, are you really gonna get the cops involved? Raven might not want to be here, but I do. We're away from the tribe, seeing the world, got good food, a roof, I'm not likely to get carried of by a nevermore any second I'm not watching the skies, y'know."

I searched my teammate's face for a moment, still unsure of whether or not I could truly trust him, before relenting. "Fine. Not this time. But you need to try to get your sister in check. You're the only one she'll listen to around here. I'm counting on you to do that, okay?"

Qrow shrugged. "I'll give it a shot, I guess. But don't expect a miracle, alright?"

"Don't worry, I won't." The three of us walked on in silence for a moment longer. I was still headed to the armory workshop, and wasn't quite sure why the boys were still following me. Suddenly though, Tai spoke up.

"Hey, I've got an idea! We should go out on the town. Hit up the sketchy spots, go find a club, y'know like, as a team. Bet that would help Raven loosen up a bit."

"Yeah, I'd actually be down for that," Qrow said. "See what you city-types do for fun, y'know?"

"Hold up. Hold up," I interrupted. "First thing, we're all just 17. We're not allowed into any of the clubs. Second thing, how do you know that would get Raven to 'loosen up'?" My concerns, however, only evoked a mischievous smile from Tai.

"That," He said through that cocky grin, "Just depends on who you know. So, tomorrow night?"

"What? No! That's the middle of the week! We've got class—"

"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right, all the clubs will be pretty quiet on an off-day like that. The real party's on Friday night. Good point, Summer."

"That's not what I—"

"Qrow? Friday? Think you can convince Raven?" Tai wasn't going to hear any excuse I could come up with to just stay in the dorms.

"I… I guess I can try. We'll give it a few days for her to cool off, then I'll ask. They have booze at these clubs?"

"More than you could drink in a lifetime."

"Ohhhohoho. Challenge accepted."

"You're both underage!" I protested.

"Yeah? And?"

"And it's illegal! If the headmaster finds out—"

" _If! If_ he finds out. Loosen up, shy-girl. Gotta break you outta your shell too."

"Wh—I don't _have_ a shell!"

"Mmmhm. Right."

"I don't! I just… I don't really like crowds, and people, and…"

"That's _literally_ the definition of having a shell. Hey, I'll make sure you have a good time, alright? Promise. Might help Raven see that you're not so lawful-good all the time. Bet she'll warm up to you if you go break some rules with us. The harmless kind that don't hurt anyone. And if you don't have fun," Tai added, "I'll never make you go again. Deal?"

I finally nodded, grudgingly, after a moment. "Fine. I can promise you right now though, I won't have fun."

* * *

Friday rolled around much more quickly than I'd hoped. I'd spent the week avoiding Raven and juggling assignments, trying to keep up with ten classes worth of papers, tests, projects, far more than any combat school had ever demanded of me. I was exhausted, by the end of the week, and the only thing I wanted to do after the bell rang at the end of Grimm Studies 102 was lie down and sleep through the whole weekend. Alas, I'd promised to be an extrovert for one night.

Raven and I both headed to the girl's bathroom in our suite at the same time, both carrying bundled-up regular clothes under our arms. As soon as my teammate realized, however, that we were both changing for a night on the town, she stopped. "Qrow didn't say you were coming," she growled aggressively.

"You could just stay here."

"Nothing like a self-righteous little princess to ruin what might've been a fun night. I think I just might."

"Well, good," I flung back sarcastically. "For a moment there I thought I wasn't gonna have any fun out there either, if I had to deal with you. Now it just might be bearable." Raven's eyes narrowed. I could practically sense her weighing her hatred of me against her desire to make sure I'd be miserable tonight. No… That wasn't it. I couldn't believe it, but there was something more in her face. She'd wanted to go, and I'd just called her bluff. After a moment, she huffed annoyedly.

"Just stay the hell away from me, and we'll be fine," she said, storming on into the bathroom to change and slamming the door in my face.

I followed calmly a few seconds later, changing quickly from my uniform into my comfy skirt and cloak and slipping out without making any more eye contact with Raven. The door to our room was partially open when I reached it, but I didn't just push my way in. Several times in the last week I'd managed to walk in on the boys while changing. Not today. I knocked a few times, to be safe. "We're good," came the reply, so I pushed on into the room. Tai was wearing a nice black leather jacket I didn't know he owned, and he'd actually combed and styled the shaggy blonde mop that usually hung down into his eyes a bit. Not quite the carefree and down-dressed guy I'd gotten used to him being. Still, I couldn't help but wonder why he was returning the weird look I was giving him.

"That's what you're wearing?" He asked, eyeing my casual ensemble dubiously.

I looked down at my very typical outfit, half confused, half indignant. "What? What's wrong with this?"

"Nothing, I guess…" Tai snickered. I shot him an annoyed glance at the lack of explanation and he tensed up a little. "I… Uhhh… I mean it's just pretty clear you don't get out much."

"I think he's talking trash on your cape," Qrow butted in.

"That's not what I—No, that's not what I meant at all," Tai stammered as my stare grew murderous for a moment. "I'm just saying you're gonna stick out. Part of town we're going to, it's kinda best not to get noticed."

"I'll take my chances," I grumbled, pointedly pulling my cloak up tighter around my shoulders. And for the last time, Qrow, It's not a cape!" The Branwen boy just waved his hand dismissively, and I grumbled annoyedly. Even he'd changed up his look, a bit. Broke out some less-patchy slacks, took that little red scrap he called a cape off, and slicked his hair back with some gel he must've bought just for the occasion.

"First rule of going clubbing, Summer," Qrow said. "Gotta look good while you're getting' hammered. Girls don't wanna dance with guys who look like they still live in their mom's basement."

"Girls don't wanna dance with the guy who's super drunk, either. Besides, how would _you_ know? You're from the middle of nowhere."

"Doesn't mean I didn't have a life. Raven and I've managed to stop by a few shady clubs as the clan's moved around. There's a good one in Windpath that's got some killer homemade moonshine—"

"You have a problem."

"Nah. I have fun. Whole point of tonight, ain't it? C'mon, Petals. Loosen up."

"Keep calling me 'Petals'. We'll see how loose I can get while I'm kicking your ass."

"Whoa, huh. Calm down Summer," Tai grinned. "I like beating up on him too, but clubs in Vale don't take kindly to people that try to start a ruckus. The guy who owns most of them doesn't like the attention that brings."

"A club you can't have a good fight in? Lame." Qrow grumbled. "So… How are we gonna get to town?"

"Got it covered," Tai replied with a grin as we stepped out of our room. "Hey Val," He called, knocking a few times on team GLDN's door. After a moment, it swung open, and Gretchen looked at us confusedly from the threshold. "You guys going somewhere?"

"Oh, you know. Out." Tai replied, raising his hand to catch something as it was thrown from within the room, right over Gretch's head. A set of keys. "Thanks bro, you're a legend," said with an acknowledging nod into the room.

"Better bring her back," Val answered from within. I caught a glimpse of him, setting up for an arm-wrestling bout with Talia on a desk they'd pulled into the middle of their quarters.

Tai let slip a mischievous grin, probably feigning recklessness to irritate his friend. "No promises."

"Tai, I swear to the gods—" The door shut, and I didn't get to hear the end of whatever threat Val made.

"C'mon, let's get outta here," my teammate said with a laugh. From down the hall, Raven exited the girl's bathroom and fell in quietly behind us. Almost like she'd been waiting for us to leave so she could slip into the group unnoticed. Qrow saw her though, dropping back and falling in step with her as the two murmured back and forth. I could tell she was berating him for not mentioning that I'd be going too. As far as I was concerned, that was just a bonus to the night.

The student parking garage was at the far corner of campus, and was typically only used by third and fourth-year students. They were the only ones who had the extra money to afford a parking space, since student accounts didn't cover it and students weren't allowed to go on real bounty-board missions until they were older and more experienced. From it there led one sinuous, two-lane cliffside road all the way to Vale, along the lake that separated the school from the city.

"How can you afford a parking spot?" Qrow asked as we entered the long, low building.

Tai grinned, tossing the keys in his hand up into the air and catching them again nonchalantly. "Well, Val got one because he's rich. He hates his family, but he's not stupid enough to blow off the perks that come with being loaded, y'know? Speaking of which… Yep. Here we are." Tai inserted a small chip on the keychain into a slot by one of the many garage doors that lined this level of the parking deck. It began to raise, and lights around the edges of the floor within flipped on. "That's his dad's car. Or… One of them."

The sleek lines and aggressive stance of the car's body and glinting metal of the partially-exposed dust-injection engine that growled to life in response to its key's proximity became visible bit by bit as the door continued to lift. "Holy crap. THAT's Val's ride?" Qrow asked. "Man. His family _is_ loaded."

"What, you thought I was kidding? Übermacht Z-8… And _this_ is one of the whips his dad had _spare._ "

"There's only two seats," Raven said dryly. "We riding on each other's laps?"

"Pfff. Nah," Tai replied, before backhandedly flipping her the keys. She caught them, awkwardly, and looked from them to our teammate and back, clearly surprised that he'd just entrusted her with his friend's hundred and twenty-thousand lien ride. "Told Val I'd bring it back in one piece. You or Qrow ever drive before?"

"Uhhh… I…" Raven stammered, before collecting herself. "Yeah. Yeah I know how to drive."

"Hope so. You break it, you bought it," Tai replied. Raven eyed her brother, visibly nervous for a moment more. She had a good reason to be concerned, with her brother and his semblance riding shotgun all the way to town. I almost elbowed Tai and mentioned it—mostly because I didn't want to see that car tumbling off the cliffside road into the lake below—but something happened then that I'd only seen once or twice up to that point. Raven grinned. Like, really grinned. As she strode over to the driver's side of the gunmetal-grey sports car, the two suicide doors levered up and back automatically, and the Branwen twins swung themselves down into the cockpit-like interior with mixed awe and excitement at the prospect of driving that sleek machine.

"So… What are we riding in?" I asked as Raven pulled Val's car jerkily out of its stall. Tai only held up a finger to indicate that I should be patient, and waved at the twins to follow. The Z-8 idled behind us as Tai and I walked on down the rows of garage doors without a word. Finally, we got all the way to the end of the row, to where the Campus Security officers had their hovercars parked. To my surprise, one of the doors marked C-SEC began to raise as we approached. "No way. We're taking a cop car?"

"Nope." As the vehicle within the C-Sec stall came into view, I couldn't stop the apprehensive gasp that escaped my lips. It was a motorcycle. An old, bright-yellow street bike with exposed dust-injection turbos and fire-spitting short exhausts that rumbled to life and shook the concrete building as Tai clicked a button on his own key fob. "My baby. Whaddya think?"

"That's yours?"

"Yeah. Well, it _was_ Kent's. Y'know, that cop I said that took me in off the streets? He never had time to work on it. So, he gave it to me and I made a few… Let's say _special_ modifications to her."

"How come it's parked here?"

"It's all about who you know, Summer," Tai replied, tapping the side of his nose before reaching around the corner of the garage door. He retrieved a bright-yellow helmet with a black Qiulong-style dragon painted along the side. I recognized the origin of the symbol- An elite Mistraline Imperial Regiment from the Great War, The Emperor's Fang, used the same sigil almost sixty years before. Handing it to me, he smiled. Your head's prettier than mine. Better protect it in case we crash, y'know?"

"Um… Alright…" I said, realizing there had been a barely-veiled compliment in his statement. Or… Flirt? I felt my face flush a bit and quickly put the helmet on, looking down to hide the embarrassed blush. "Yeah, just—uh… Just don't crash. Your head's pretty too." _Oh gods. Why did I say that? How could I be so…_ Tai's semi-confused grin and raised eyebrow in response only made it worse.

"You guys gonna go? Y'know, _today_? Quit standing around!" Qrow's annoyed shout snapped me out of the awkwardness of the situation.

"Alright, alright. Don't get your feathers all ruffled, Qrow," Tai hollered back over the rumbling chorus of the motorcycle and sports car that now filled the cavernous garage. A few steps took him to the black leather seat, and he swung his leg over before motioning for me to come sit behind him. I did, suddenly realizing that maybe Tai had been right about wearing something other than my skirt as I straddled the saddle. _Oh dear,_ I thought. _This could be bad._

I did my best to pin my skirt down with my legs against the bike, realizing then how Qrow must've felt when we'd tricked him into wearing the bottom half of a girl's uniform the first day of class. "Hold on," Tai said over his shoulder.

"To what?"

"Whatever you can," he laughed as he revved the engine. "Hands above the waist though."

I was glad he couldn't see me smile through the face-shield of the helmet as I elbowed him in the ribs. "You're terrible."

"I know," was his only reply, before popping the clutch and sending the motorcycle roaring out of the parking deck and down the winding, treacherous road.


	12. Chapter 12: Broken

**Chapter 12: To Breaking the Rules**

The motorcycle's engine bellowed like an enraged ursa as we rumbled down the road. Tai's wide-open throttle yielded terrifying speed… Probably faster than I'd ever ridden on _anything_ before. My teammate leaned the bike hard into every twist and turn, so far in fact that I could've reached out and touched the pavement without even fully extending my arm. This was probably one of the most dangerous things I'd ever done… And that included having been literally catapulted off of a cliff into a forest full of deadly monsters a week before.

But it was pretty hard to show how utterly terrified I was when all I could do was grin ear-to-ear with excitement.

I was having the time of my life. My cloak billowed and whipped like a flag flying through a category four blizzard in Solitas. My arms ached from clinging so tightly to my teammate, and my legs trembled as I gripped the narrow, uncomfortable seat and prayed the wind didn't whip my skirt up too. Chancing a look back, I saw the twins gaining ground, their own engine howling louder than a pack of beowolves as Raven caught up.

"They're gonna catch us!" I yelled at the top of my lungs against the wind that seemed to steal my voice away.

"Hah! That's what they think!" Tai hollered back over his shoulder. As I watched, he flicked his right thumb against a red switch cover that was mounted to the handlebar right by his throttle controls. The underside of the cover had another yellow Qiulong dragon painted on it, though this one had a burning cigar clamped between its fangs. The button that had been concealed beneath was marked with an image of a dust crystal.

 _Oh gods,_ I thought, and held on even tighter. It didn't take much imagination to figure out what that button did. The Branwen's borrowed Z-8 was now right behind us. I looked back again, and saw something that looked like a dangerous, near-psychopathic level of glee in the faces of both twins… The kind of expression you might see if you gave a hyperactive three-year-old a double shot of espresso and a chainsaw. I made eye contact with Raven who, as soon as she realized that I'd actually seen her smile, forcibly soured her expression into a determined scowl and pulled into the lakeside lane to make an attempt to pass us.

Qrow was still jubilant in the passenger's seat, already gloating as his sister began to edge up even with the motorcycle. Tai, however, wasn't the least bit concerned. He maneuvered the bike to cut the twins off, barely missing the front fender of Val's car. Frustrated, Raven whipped back into the cliffside lane to keep her speed up and make a second attempt to pass, but we were more agile, and cut her off again. I realized at that point that Tai was just toying with the twins. He'd throttle down to let the powerful sports car almost slip by, but would open it up again at the last moment to thunder past and easily retake the lead. I could see the irritation in both Qrow and Raven's face, now. Downtown Vale was growing closer, and at this rate, they were going to lose.

A third time, the twins pulled up beside us, with Qrow flipping us a less-than-polite hand gesture for Tai's cheeky antics. I couldn't help but laugh when Tai popped a wheelie and responded in kind. What I immediately found less than funny, however, was Raven's next maneuver. She began to merge over into the lakeside lane, trapping us against the guardrail with no more than six inches on either side… And she was still closing in. At that instant, too, things took an even worse turn. A blaring horn from up ahead snapped both driver's heads forward. A delivery truck, probably from the dust shop that supplied the dispensary on campus, had just appeared around a long, blind curve in the road. Tai had milliseconds to react. Instead of braking and cutting back into the correct lane like anybody with an ounce of sense would do, he did exactly what I was hoping he wouldn't... He pushed the button.

A note like the screech of a greater nevermore split the air as the twin-scroll dust injection turbochargers dumped pure wind dust into the bike's combustion chambers. Cyan flames hotter than those from a blowtorch flashed from the dual exhausts as Raven cut back into the cliffside lane. The back tire of the bike squealed as it tried to transfer the sudden boost in horsepower to the road, and the instant it gained traction, I was glad no one but Tai could hear me scream. The old-fashioned analog speedometer jumped from two-hundred and thirty kilometers per hour to two-ninety in a split second, and Tai leaned the bike into the long curve beside the cliff face. The left fender of the delivery truck missed us only by centimeters as we continued to accelerate… Three-ten, three-thirty, three-fifty… I shut my eyes against the wind and held on for dear life, activating my aura and fully expecting to end up as roadkill at any second.

But we didn't. Moments rushed by, the bike leaned and turned into a dozen different curves in the road as the boost wore off… And I was still alive as I cautiously cracked one eye and relaxed my death grip on Tai's waist. As soon as he could actually breathe, I felt him shaking from laughter, high on adrenaline and probably pretty damn proud of himself.

"What part of _almost dying_ is supposed to be funny?" I asked pointedly.

"I can't believe the boost actually worked!"

"Wait— _what?!"_ Unbelievable. "You didn't know it would work?!"

"Nah, the last few times I've tried it I blew the engine up! Kent was _pissed_!"

"I'd have been a bit more than pissed if you'd have gotten us killed, you know."

My comment only made Tai laugh harder. "Operative word- _IF._ But did you die?"

"I swear to the gods, Tai…"

"I guess you could say we really _dusted_ the twins, huh?"

"Leave it to you to make terrible puns after something like that."

"You kidding? That's the best time to make 'em! Now, let's wait for the slowpokes to catch up. They'll never find this place on their own… I doubt they even know how to work the nav system in that car. Heh. I guess it wouldn't even matter if they could. I bet no computer could get to this place either."

"How sketchy of a place are we going, exactly?"

"Sketchy? Please. I have _standards._ We're headed to the classiest dive in the _way-_ downtown of Vale."

"That's not exactly comforting," I grumbled. About thirty seconds after a guard waved us through the campus security checkpoint and we pulled over just outside the concrete archway, we heard Val's sports car growling around the last curve in the road behind us.

"Man, we beat them _bad_ ," Tai said as our teammates finally pulled through the gate. Raven wouldn't even look over as she idled next to us… Though I got the distinct feeling that it was because she and her brother had just gotten humiliated in that race, not because she was ashamed at having almost gotten us killed or anything. "Right this way, ladies," Tai gloated, waving for them to follow us out into the commercial district.

"You cheated," Qrow replied flatly from the window of the sportscar.

"Hey, your car has a boost too. Not my fault Raven doesn't know where the button is. Come on. It's happy hour. Zak's place just opened, and kicking your butts made me thirsty."

"Smartass," our teammate growled before rolling the tinted window back up. Tai led the team through the commercial district, winding down backroads and between buildings before eventually turning off a side street into an even narrower alleyway beside a power plant. A man in a hard hat and overalls sat in a run-down sentry hut by a rusty old garage door at the end of the alleyway.

"Doesn't really look like somewhere you'd find a club," I said as we rolled right up to the man, who eyed us suspiciously.

"That's the point," Tai replied casually. "The only people who know how to find this place are the ones who already know where it is."

"You got that from a movie."

"Guilty. Doesn't make it any less true though." With that, he nodded to the plant worker and pulled up his left sleeve just a bit. The man's face went from semi-hostile to a strange sort of half-questioning, half reverent expression as he spied some kind of mark on Tai's upper arm. I'd never seen it before, but didn't get a chance to get a good look before Tai dropped his sleeve and the man reached just inside his watchman's shack to a console of buttons he had there. He tapped the green one, and I heard a buzzing noise and the whir of an electric motor as the old corrugated steel door began to rattle open. Tai waved casually. "Those two in the Z behind us are with me, too."

"Right. You kids enjoy," the man replied. I was beginning to get the feeling that he was no power-plant worker.

"Thanks, mate. Don't have too much fun out here on bouncer duty."

"Hrmph. I'll try not to," the man grumbled dryly in reply.

Our two-vehicle caravan rumbled on down a long interior corridor, concrete floor and cinderblock walls reverberating with the growl of our engines. The passage sloped gently down, leading us underground, before opening up and leveling off into a wide subterranean parking deck that was already full of cars, mostly beaters and rusty old wagons. A few nice cars were parked nearer the front, but nothing as high-class as Val's Übermacht. At the other end of the space, a flashing neon sign reading "ZAK's" was mounted to some steam piping, right above a steel hatch in the ground with two more bouncers standing guard. A weakly-flickering neon arrow pointed down towards that massive steel access cover. The club must've been even deeper than we already were. I could hear the rhythmic thumping of a loud sound system, mixing with a few stray, muffled high notes that filtered through the inch-thick steel of the hatch and permeated the parking garage.

Once we got parked and Tai lowered his kickstand, I took the helmet off and was better able to survey the surroundings. More of that steam piping and industrial ducting crisscrossed the ceiling. I could tell we were actually underneath one of Vale's power substations, probably in some disused auxiliary boiler room that had been converted to parking space. The two men at the entrance to Zak's were armed with double-bladed axes, and the one I took to be the leader of the two was rather seriously imposing in size and demeanor. "What was that mark you showed to get us in here?" I asked my teammate as the large, threatening man strode towards us.

Tai hesitated. "A piece of my past. Can't get rid of it, so I might as well make it useful."

"You kids look a little lost," the bouncer grunted as we met him halfway to the hatch.

"Nah man, we're right were we wanna be." Tai showed the man the mark once again, but it was dimmer down here than outside and once again I couldn't get a good look at it.

"Hm. Boss said if you got a brand, you get in free. No cover charge for you, _sir_. Them, however… What about it, little lady? Can't just go letting anyone in here, y'know."

"She's with me," Tai replied for me, echoing his words from outside. "All three of them."

"Rule's changed. They ain't got a mark, they don't get in without payin'. Been that way for a while now, kid. Should get with the times. fifty-lien cover. And that's with your… _Family_ discount."

" _Fifty_? That's a friggin shakedown," Qrow growled.

"Yeah, no crap. Listen, pal. Unless you want a few marks of your own, you'll let my friends in free. Zak's a friend of mine. And I'd hate to have you lose your job over a few little cover fees."

"Sounds an awful lot like a threat, tiny," the man growled, widening his stance and hefting his axe.

"Oh, well maybe you're not as dumb as you look. It _was_ a threat. But if you wanna throw down for it…" Tai activated his aura, making sure the man saw its golden glow flicker across his whole body as he too took up a combative posture. "Go ahead. That axe looks like it might tickle a little." Qrow stepped up beside Tai and activated his aura as well, seizing on the surprise that was now betrayed in the man's face. I guessed aural focus wasn't a common ability down here in Vale's underground scene.

The man looked from his axe, to the two glowing boys before him, then to Raven as she too powered up her protective field. I shrugged and activated mine too, drawing a glance from the man as well. "Hmph. So, you kids can sparkle. Neat trick, but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference _to ME."_ He swung, but before his axe was halfway to Tai's face, my teammate had spun inside his reach and whipped out one of his tonfa that neither I nor the bouncer knew he'd had concealed. The weapon glowed with golden light as Tai shifted his aura into its striking end, and the surprise counterattack caught the big bouncer squarely alongside his jaw. The man's grip relaxed as I saw his eyes roll back in his head. The lightning-fast impact had knocked him unconscious in a single blow, and he tumbled to the cold concrete floor as his axe clattered away.

"The bigger they are," Tai laughed, spinning and retracting the tonfa in his right hand before storing it back along the lining of his jacket. "What's the deal, man?" He asked the remaining bouncer, who was staring in disbelief at the larger man who'd just gone to sleep at Tai's feet. "Gonna let us in?"

"Sure man. Sure."

"Tell the gorilla when he wakes up, my family's not the one to mess with."

"You got it. Here, lemme get the door." The second bouncer began hauling on a chain that was slaved to a gear and pulley above the hatch, and the entrance to the club gradually creaked open. The music from within grew louder as he pulled, and before long the man stopped and waved us through. Tai gave a sarcastic bow and trotted down the spiral staircase that the hatch revealed, motioning for us to follow just as I heard the larger bouncer groaning himself back to consciousness.

The interior of Zak's club was a far cry from the stark, murky parking garage above. The stairs came to a landing atop a balcony that overlooked the three-story open area below. From up here, we could see almost the whole club. A central raised dance floor lit up in a rainbow of color as multi-hued lasers put on a lightshow through thick banks of fog. Dozens of people flailed about to the beat, clearly at varying levels of inebriation. The bar lay beyond, with row upon row of a hundred different kinds of liquor, beer on tap, wine, and whatever else arrayed with blacklights illuminating their labels in a sort of eerie purplish glow. The noise was astounding, too. Speakers and subwoofers hung from every old pipe, every support beam, up and down the walls with now rhyme or reason to the way they were installed.

I saw Tai mouthing something ahead of me, though I couldn't for the life of me tell what in the world he was saying over the ruckus. "WHAT?!" I shouted as loud as I could.

Tai leaned in as Qrow and Raven made it to the landing at the base of the staircase. "Let's go get some drinks, then we're having a team dance-off!"

"Dance—What? No! I'm not dancing!" I protested.

"You say that now!" Tai laughed, pulling me down from the balcony, down a few staircase landings to the floor of the expansive room. The lowest level widened out further, leading to rows of booths and tables where I saw people gambling, eating, arm-wrestling, all with scantily-clad waitresses tending to the establishment's patrons. Exactly the kind of place Dad would absolutely freak out about me visiting. "One thing…" Tai cautioned, once he saw me taking in the sights. "Don't look at anyone twice. Mind your business here, and everyone else will too." Great. As if I couldn't be any more on-edge.

"What if they look at me twice? I didn't bring my weapons."

"They won't. And if they do, play it cool. Don't use your semblance, don't want anyone pegging us for huntsmen-in-training." With that, he led on, marching right up to the bar like he owned the place. "Hey, Zak!"

A skinny, unassuming man with slicked-back hair, moustache and sole-patch looked over from the other end of a bar, where he'd been talking to a patron and cleaning a row of shot glasses. His eyebrow raised when he locked eyes with the owner of the voice that had summoned him over. Nodding to the hooded man at the other end of the bar, 'Zak' sauntered over and stopped right in front of Tai. I noticed a mark on his arm too… a scar, like from a burn or brand. It almost looked like… "Tai."

"Zak, buddy, how's business?"

"How's buis—Man. The balls on you, kid. Thought you got nabbed by the boys in blue _years_ ago. Figured your ass would be in juvy for like… Ever. But here you are. Mind explainin' that?"

"Long story you don't need to know the details about," Tai replied.

"Like hell I don't."

Tai rolled his eyes. "Lemme rephrase. You don't _want_ to know the details." With that, he pulled a 50-lien card out of his wallet and slid it across the bar.

Zak glanced at the cash, grinned, and slipped it into the pocket on his leather vest. "Nah, I think you're right. Probably a boring-ass story anyway. Congratulations on your… _Parole._ So, who's all your friends? Or do I not wanna know about them either?"

"No, no you don't. All you need to know's that we're thirsty."

"Alright, what'll it be then? Ladies first," Zak said with a grin, looking straight at me.

"I… Uhhhhh… I don't..." I'd never had so much as a sip of alcohol before in my life. The massive rack of multicolored drinks behind Zak were a complete mystery to me. At that moment, however, I noticed Qrow and Raven watching me. I couldn't refuse or ask for recommendations… The whole point of coming out was to get Raven to think I wasn't some kind of self-righteous little angel. "That one," I said, pointing to a bottle of pinkish booze near the top shelf. Maybe it was strawberry. I like strawberries.

"Straight into the deep-end, huh? Alright," Zak replied after following my finger to the bottle I'd indicated. _Oh gods,_ I thought. _Deep end? What did I pick?_ "Just a shot?"

"Y-yes?" I stammered. After a moment I remembered something I'd seen in a holovid once. "Make it a double," I added confidently. At that, Zak, Tai, Raven, and Qrow all raised their eyebrows at me. "What?"

"Uh, nothing. Just didn't expect you to go that hard," Qrow said. Zak didn't speak, instead simply retrieving a tumbler from a chiller behind the bar. He dispensed a pair of ice cubes into it and expertly poured about four ounces of the pink drink into the bottom of the frosty glass. I caught a whiff of the strong alcoholic scent of the booze as Tai's bartender friend slid the drink to me.

"For you, miss?" Zak asked Raven.

"Same as her," the dark-haired girl replied, glancing over at me as she did. Raven wasn't one to let herself get outdone, especially by me.

"Coming right up. Gents?"

"Oh, been awhile, Zak. Surprise us. Got anything new?" Tai asked. "Top-shelf only, though. Trying to show my people here how we do it in Vale."

Zak smiled mischievously before reaching beneath the counter to a hidden chiller. "Oh, if that's how it is, you want something better than my top-shelf. This right here's not for the weak of constitution. Shouldn't be a problem for you boys, though." The bartender retrieved a bottle of medium brown liquid and set it on the counter proudly. "Can only manage to get a few bottles of this a year. Shade-Thief Sake."

"Shade-Thief? As in… The snake?" I'd heard of the species before, during the brief time my dad and I had lived in Menagerie. It took me a moment to realize that the dark shapes I could see submerged within the bottle weren't a trick of the light. "Are those… Actual snakes? _In_ the bottle?" All four of us stared at the two banded reptiles coiled together, preserved in the powerful-smelling alcohol.

"Oh, don't worry, they're harmless. Most dead things are. But before my… Let's call him my distributor… shoved them in there, they gave their venom to the cause. Traditional rice wine… But with a bit more _bite_ to it, if you catch my meaning. It's said that drinking the venom of the snake that bit you will save you from death, grant good fortune, and incredible longevity in the bedroom."

" _Ohhhhh_ -kay. Let's not go there," I said, shifting noticeably with discomfort at what Tai's old 'friend' was implying.

"As you wish, milady, I didn't mean to seem so crass."

"Why do they call it the 'Shade-Thief'?" Qrow asked.

"Ha. The half-breeds down in Menagerie call them that. It's because if you're trying to get out of the sun and one of these decides to slither on into your patch of shade, you'd better leave. The heat only _might_ kill you. These little guys _will_."

"And people _drink_ it's _venom_?" I asked, dumbfounded. "Who even thought that was a good idea in the first place?"

"Someone genius. Alright, Zak, you've sold us. I'll take a double."

"Sounds like something you'd die after one sip of," I said.

"It _sounds_ like exactly my kind of booze. Bring it on, man. Double, just like blondie here."

"Coming right up. You kids sure are the adventurous type."

"You could say that," Tai replied. "By the way, is… Is _she_ working tonight?"

"No, she ain't. Said she's got something big going. Family business. All's I know is that she better not just be trying to skip out on peak night." I didn't get a chance to ask who Tai was inquiring about. Zak finished pouring Qrow's drink and grinned. "There you go. Bottoms up, kids."

"Thanks. Put it on the Family tab."

"Right."

"Alright. On three, ladies," Tai said, holding his glass up near his lips. "One… Tw—Qrow!"

"What? You were taking too long," Our teammate answered, setting his empty glass down on the counter and giving us a satisfied glance. After a second to register the taste of his venom-laden drink, his expression changed again into one of surprise. "Whoa… That—You weren't kidding. That's good stuff. Lemme get another, Zak." Qrow shoved his glass forward, and Zak obliged, filling it yet again with another two shots worth of alcohol.

Tai sighed. "Whatever. Just drink." With that, he tilted his own glass back and downed it in a single gulp.

I looked at mine, then looked at Raven, who seemed to be waiting for me to drink first. I sighed apprehensively, then raised the glass. _Here goes nothing,_ I thought. The instant the first drop hit my lips, I almost gagged. _Not strawberry… NOT STRAWBERRY._ I fought the urge to put the drink down and ask for water, determinedly sipping away at the booze until it was gone and placing the glass perhaps a bit too hard onto the counter. The loud clink of the tumbler was followed by an impressed whistle from Tai. "Wow. Nice. Y'know, strictly speaking yours is stronger than ours. That's like one hundred-sixty proof. Ours is only one hundred-forty."

"What? I don't… What even is it?"

"Not really sure. Looks kinda pink. I'd guess strawberry something or other."

"Yeah," I grumbled dryly. "That's what I thought too."

"That's Dragon Tear moonshine," Zak said, somehow overhearing our conversation over the blasting music. "Not my strongest stuff, but not for the casual drinker, either. Want me to get you something a little… Lighter? Looks like you were struggling to suck it down," He added with a laugh.

"I…" My face was starting to feel warm. Hot, even, right across the bridge of my nose and spreading into my cheeks and forehead. Raven's face was flushing a little bit too, but she seemed determined to keep going if I did. "No. Can I have another, please?"

"Please? Man. Haven't had anyone ask me for a drink that nice in… Nah. Never happens, actually. Coming right up, miss."

"I'll have another one too," Raven added.

"Sure thing, sweetheart."

"The _hell_ you call me?" There was more venom in her voice then than I reckoned was in that whole bottle of sake.

Zak lowered his shades and made full eye-contact with Raven as he spoke, expertly pouring her drink without looking. "Sweet. Heart. What, something about that bother you? I'm just trying to be… Polite."

"Oh boy. Here we go," Qrow murmured. I saw Raven begin to withdraw something from her thigh-high boot. A knife, with the same red dust-infused blade as the sword we'd made sure she left at school. Tai saw it too, and was off his bar stool in a flash.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, now that everyone's got a second round, we should have a toast!" He'd inserted himself awkwardly between Qrow and his sister, holding his second tumbler of alcohol up in one hand while grabbing Raven's wrist with the other, out of Zak's line of sight. "Stupid of us not to have one on our first drink, but it's never too late, huh?"

"Don't touch m— _OW!"_ I saw Tai activate the aura on just his hand, delivering a numbing shock straight to the hand with which Raven clutched the knife. It fell, but he caught it on his boot before it would've clattered loudly to the floor. With a look in my direction, he flicked his toe kicked the blade to me. I stumbled and almost missed the catch, already feeling some of the disorienting effects of my first drink. Zak saw me nearly fall, but I stood quickly after attaching the knife to my mag plate, and tried to make the movement look natural as I stood to go join the rest of the group for this 'toast'.

I could tell from his expression that Zak knew we'd just stopped Raven from doing something rash, but he didn't press the issue. "Well, I'll keep in mind that the emo one here doesn't like to be complimented," he laughed. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I ought to tend to my other patrons. I'll just leave these here, since you've seemed to develop a taste for them." With that, the bartender walked back down to the other end, where the hooded man I'd noticed earlier was getting up to leave. He grabbed the bottle he'd been drinking from, tossed Zak a few lien, and strode towards the stairs… Not before I caught a glimpse of his scarred, brutal face, however.

"What'd I tell you? No staring!" Tai said in my ear, elbowing me gently.

"I wasn't staring, I was… Alright, fine. Yeah, I was staring."

Tai gave me an exasperated glance before shrugging. Turning to Raven, he growled, "Alright, if I let you go, are you gonna behave?"

"Not on your life." Raven shot back. "But… I won't kill anyone either. Yet."

"I guess that's going to have to be good enough," Tai replied, releasing Raven's wrist. She clutched at the numb spot with her other hand, trying to work some feeling back into the joint to no avail.

"You finally done talking over there?" Qrow asked, clearly wanting to down as much of the bottle that Zak had left right in front of him as possible. "You yelled at me the last time I didn't wait for you losers."

"Waiting on you, now," Tai shot back as he raised his glass. "What are we drinking to? Team STRQ?"

"That'd dumb. Let's drink to not being sober. Kill two birds with one stone," Qrow said.

"Toasts are stupid," Raven interjected.

"To breaking rules," I suggested. Raven and Qrow both looked at me. I was already feeling strange from my first drink. I didn't care what they thought at this point.

"I'm down for that," Tai replied. "To breaking rules!"

"To breaking rules," I heard the twins repeat in unison.

"To breaking rules," I said as the four of us tapped our glasses together. I dumped mine back, trying hard not to actually taste the alcohol and failing miserably as the acerbic flavor splashed onto the back of my tongue and I swallowed. I still winced and grimaced, but it was easier to recover this time, too. It really wasn't that bad… Well, it was, but it wasn't. The last thing I remember was looking down and noticing my foot tapping to the beat of the music and Tai clumsily pouring me another round.


	13. Chapter 13: A Really, Really Long Night

**Chapter 13: A Really, Really Long Night**

Sometime later, I cracked one eye to see Qrow and Tai standing over me. Or rather, their really, really blurry outlines. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew they were talking to me, but their voices were too muffled to hear and their faces too hazy to lip-read. I had no idea what was going on, where I was, nor why I was wrapped up in my cloak like some kind of human-sized burrito, but I knew I was comfy and warm. I tried to tell the boys to shut up and leave me alone, but at best all I could manage was a disgruntled moan. Then the shaking started.

I couldn't swat at the hands that had me by the shoulders as they tried to rouse me, so instead I opened my eyes and growled again. This time when my eyes opened, I could make out a fingertip glowing with golden light hovering in front of my face. Before I realized who it belonged to, Tai flicked me in the forehead, jolting me with his own aura. A moment of clarity from my stupor, accompanied by a spasm of pain like if I'd just stuck my face into a bug zapper, caused me to sit up quickly and whirl on my teammate. I still couldn't do anything, though, swaddled in my cloak like a tightly-wrapped blanket.

"Ow! The hell was that for?" I exclaimed, wishing I could slug him right there.

"I'm trying to tell you to activate your aura! It'll help with the hangover. We need to go, and you'll never get past the campus checkpoint that drunk!"

"What? I… Wh-where…" The shock from Tai's tiny transfer of aura into my head abated, and the world began to spin once again. My teammate's next sentence reached my ears as nothing more than an indecipherable mess of syllables, and I felt myself falling backward. My head didn't slam into the ground, however. I think Qrow caught me, but I couldn't be sure.

Moments later, an even stronger shock delivered to either side of my head painfully ripped me back into a semi-conscious state. "OW! Again?! Can you _stop that_?"

"You need to listen to me. I think they know who I am. We need to get the hell out of this alley and back on campus before an enforcer shows up. Or worse. Now activate your aura, come on!"

"Who? Who knows who you are?"

"No time to explain, just do it! I can't steer the bike and hang on to you at the same time."

" _Ugghh…_ Fine," I grumbled. The intense headache made concentration painful and difficult to say the least, but after a moment I was able to summon up my protective barrier and breathe a sigh of relief as its healing effects went to work on undoing the damage from a night of bad decisions.

Qrow heaved me to my feet, and after a few shaky moments I unfurled my cloak and draped it properly about my shoulders once again. "Where's Raven?"

"Passed out in the car. She's next, but we figured we'd need some backup if we're gonna zap her out of it," Qrow replied.

"Fair point."

"We don't have time to do it here, though," Tai said. I looked around. We were in the alley that led to the outer entrance to Zak's club. "They could send someone any second."

"Still don't know who you're talking about," I grumbled in response.

"Later. Get on the bike. Qrow, can you drive Val's car?"

Qrow looked a little annoyed that Tai would even ask, but even I sensed the apprehensive note in his voice as he assured us he could. "What? _Pfft._ Of _course,_ I can. If Raven can, I can. I really… I can. Don't uh… Don't worry."

"Might as well chock that one up as a loss," I laughed. "Of course, I could just take the bike, Qrow could ride with me, and _you_ could drive the car…"

" _Not_ happening," Tai replied, clearly beyond unwilling to let me take his pride and joy for a spin, especially in my condition. "We're going. Qrow, you'll figure it out. Good lu— Uh… I mean, just uh… Just believe. In yourself. Or… Something. Whatever. Get in the car and figure it out, loser." With that, the three of us, plus an unconscious Raven, rumbled away from Zak's in a rush that I _still_ didn't understand the reason for.

The guards at the checkpoint seemed less-than-convinced of our story at having gone driving around to explore the city at night, but they let us through, probably too tired themselves after a long, uneventful night on watch to make a scene. Fortunately, neither Tai or Qrow seemed in the mood to race each other up to the student parking garage either, so the drive up went without any near-death encounters as well.

A wave of exhaustion hit me as soon as I lowered my aura and swung my leg off of Tai's bike. A moment or two proved that the hangover wasn't completely gone, either, as my head began to throb and the lighting in the parking deck caused pain and pressure at the back of my eyeballs that I never, ever wanted to experience again. "I can't believe you guys convinced me to go out. This is what counts as fun for you? I feel like I've been hit by a boarbatusk."

"Hey, when you go out drinking, it's not the destination. It's the journey," Qrow laughed as he pulled his still-catatonic sister from the passenger seat.

"What journey? I don't remember a thing."

"Oh," Tai said, shooting Qrow a look. "We do. Told you we'd kill it on the dance floor. You challenged _everyone_ to a dance off. Even _yourself._ And don't even get me started on karaoke. That was the stuff of legend."

I felt my face flush red, both from the lingering effects of alcohol and this new revelation. "You're kidding. There's no way I—"

"Oh, you _definitely_ did," Qrow interrupted. "Turns out, you and Raven get along fine when you're trashed."

" _What?_ "

"Here, check this out." Qrow flicked open his scroll and opened his video gallery. The short clip of me and Raven, back-to-back, singing loudly and badly into a karaoke microphone was enough evidence that my teammate wasn't lying. The next video he swiped to had me and Tai breakdancing on the dancefloor, with dozens of drunk college-age kids and other bar patrons cheering us on. Even I didn't know I had moves like that.

"How much did I drink?" I asked, still in shock.

"Oh, Zak cut you off after you and Raven polished off that bottle of Dragon's Tears. By then, though… Yeah it was _way_ too late. You two were _gone_."

I couldn't even begin to describe my embarrassment. That kind of behavior was against _everything_ I'd been taught growing up. "I can't believe I let you guys convince me to do that."

"Didn't take much convincing, if I remember right. Guess you just didn't know what to expect."

"Yeah, I didn't expect to make an idiot out of myself!"

"Please. Everyone else in there was the same way, and you'll probably never see any of them again in your life. Except us. Don't worry, it'll never make it on to the CCNet. Just something to laugh about when we all graduate, huh?"

"Yeah, I know they won't go online. Because I'll kill _both_ of you if any of those vids ever make it to the net. Or are ever shown to GLDN. Or spoken about. Or if you even _think_ about them _ever_ again."

"So, you're saying I definitely shouldn't do _this_?" Tai's finger was poised over the 'send' button on his scroll, with yet another embarrassing clip of my drunken antics the night before playing in his video gallery and 'Gretchen Rainart' tagged in the recipient's list.

"NO!" I lunged after his hand, trying to knock the scroll away, but he held it easily out of reach. "Tai! _NO!_ "

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Calm down. Yeah, like I said. Just between us as teammates."

"I hate you both."

"No you don't. Come on, I promised you'd have fun, and you did. I didn't necessarily promise you'd remember any of it."

I gave an exasperated sigh. "What's the point of having fun if you _don't_ remember any of it? We're _not_ doing that again."

"Fine, fine. Not like we could, anyway."

"Yeah, there's that, too. What's the deal? Can you finally tell me, now? Why were we in such a hurry to get out of there? And what's that mark on your arm that got us in there in the first place?"

Before he could answer, Tai's scroll began to ring. Despite my generally sour mood, I laughed at the ringtone, recognizing the tune. "Wait, is that… That's the theme to Super Mecha Samurai V, isn't it? Didn't take you for the anime watching type."

"What? No, it's just… It's a good song!" Tai insisted defensively as he looked down at the caller I.D. and fumbled for the button to accept the call. "It's… Kent. Why would he be calling at this time in the morning? Hang on. I gotta take this." He raised the scroll to his ear and answered. "Hey," he said simply, feigning tiredness so to sound like the call had just awoken him. He listened for a moment, and I saw the emotion and color drain from his face. All pretense dropped from his voice, too. "It… No. You're sure it's her?" I heard the muffled response, and I was struck by the stone-faced expression that suddenly took over the face that moments before had been teasing and carefree. Tai was silent for what seemed like a long time after the person finished speaking, before finally responding. "Alright. I'll meet him at the docks in ten." With that, Tai hung up and spun on his heel towards the exit from student parking, back onto campus.

"Who was that?" I asked, concerned at Tai's sudden shift in tone and demeanor during that call.

Tai kept walking doggedly for a few more meters, before turning back and responding, "I've gotta head downtown. My dad's sending another V.P.D. officer to pick me up at the docks. You two deal with Raven, I'll be back later."

"What? What does he want you for? Think he knows where we've been all night?" Qrow wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"No. Even if he did, I doubt he'd care. That's how he is. It's for a body identification. It's… Kent thinks it's an old friend of mine."

"Dad… Kent? That the officer who gave you the tonfas?" I asked.

"Yeah. Like I said, closest thing to a real dad I ever had, so that's kinda just what I call him. He's a lieutenant with V.P.D., lives on Patch when he's not on tour four days out of every week. I guess he's working this morning."

"We're coming with you," I insisted.

"No, you're not. This is a side of my life I put behind me years ago. It's ugly business."

"What, afraid we're gonna be scarred for life or something? We're gonna be huntsmen, man. Death is gonna follow us around our entire lives once we get outta here. I guarantee you it ain't nothing Raven or I ain't seen before."

"And you?" Tai asked, turning to me.

"Ditto what the skinny one said," I replied, tilting my head over to Qrow. "You're gonna need us there, I'll bet."

Tai sighed after a moment, and shrugged. "Alright. Come on."

Qrow held up his hand. "Wait, we just going to leave Raven there?"

"She'll be fine. She can portal out of there when she comes to, right?"

"She needs her sword to use her semblance," Qrow replied.

I'd heard of people whose semblances were tied to their weapons like that. For a moment, it seemed like we'd have to waste time waking her up, but then I remembered something. Reaching back to my magnetic plate on my belt, I retrieved the little red-bladed boot-knife Raven had almost drawn on Zak. "I've still got her knife, here. Would that work?"

Qrow shrugged. "Guess we'll see. Leave it on the dash and close the garage door. At least we won't have to worry about pissing her off when she's hungover. She's about a thousand times meaner than you were when she gets woken up drunk like that."

"I wasn't that bad," I said defensively, though even now I couldn't quite remember the moment I'd woken up, even though it'd only been about thirty minutes before.

"You tried to bite my hand off when I shook you awake," Tai replied flatly.

"I did what?"

"Don't worry about it. Now, we gotta go." The three of us headed off, leaving Raven to sleep off the booze in the passenger seat of Val's car.

"So… Body I.D.?" Qrow asked as we fell into step beside our teammate. "You said it might be a friend of yours?"

"I don't know, and I won't until I see her."

"Her?" Qrow prodded. Tai didn't answer, which prompted Qrow to look over at me and shrug.

"In the bar, you asked Zak about someone. A girl. Is that who your dad thinks it might be?" I pressed. Tai just shrugged. "Then before that. Back in the room during that meeting, when you said you were with 'not the best kind of people' when you were alone on the streets. What did you mean?"

"You guys really wanna know? Fine," Tai finally replied, clearly exasperated at the volley of personal questions. I'd never seen him get like this before. "Firstly, I was never alone. I had her. Secondly, I… What do you know about the crime families that run Vale's underground?"

"You mean like… The Xiong's?" I replied. My dad had told me a little about what he'd seen on some of his trips to Vale in the past.

"Xiong, Tsov, and Tao. The three families. They've all had a fragile alliance after the last territory war ended up nearly crippling the Tsov and Tao families, but the patriarch of the Xiong family, Jīn, allowed them to continue existing if they paid him respects. Hefty cuts from their own separate drug trades, black markets, all that. Since then he's become the richest man in Vale. Some say he's got the council in his pocket. I believe it, too. And it's all hidden behind his clubs. To anyone who doesn't want to dig too deep, he's just a businessman running a string of high and… Well, low-end bars all over Vale. And anyone who does snoop too far usually ends up dead. Zak's is one of his lower-end dives. Caters to those who don't want to be seen. I was stupid to think we wouldn't get noticed there, though."

"This Jīn Xiong sounds like a fun guy," Qrow mumbled.

"I wouldn't know. Never met him, and I don't know anyone who has. I was way down the line when I ran with the Xiongs, y'know, petty thievery, drug running, just enough to earn my keep. I did run into his head enforcer, once. He was paying a visit to my boss' boss. Let's just say my boss got a promotion after that, and I escaped soon after."

"Wait, so… You were a gang member?"

"Yeah. That's what this means," Tai said as he pulled up his sleeve once again and showed Qrow and I the mark that had been concealed beneath. I'd been right. It was a scar from a burn of some kind… It took me a moment before I realized the burn had been a brand, and the brand was of a stylized ursa skull.

I looked over for Qrow's reaction, in time to see him staring intently at the beastly mark. The look on his face was one of intense interest and surprise. "Hm," he said after regarding the brand for a few long moments. "When'd you get that?"

"I think I was nine when I finally ran away from my last foster home. Wasn't long after that I fell in with the Xiongs, and they gave me that. Supposed to be for my protection, so some Tao or Tsov wouldn't try and rough me up. I think it was really more to show that they owned me, once I got burned. The only reason I was able to get out of that life was because as far as they all know, I got shipped off to a juvy down south when Kent arrested me.

"So, they don't have people in the prisons?" Qrow asked. "Enforcers who get arrested on purpose to keep their people in line on the inside?"

"They do. But I never went to juvy. Kent never filed the report. As far as the Family's concerned, I'm behind bars. Been four years and no one has come after me yet."

"Hm. Guess you never got deep enough for them to care," Qrow replied.

"Guess not."

"But that's how you got us into that bar. With your old mark. That's what you meant when you said you might as well make that piece of your past useful, and you think someone recognized you. That's why we had to leave in such a hurry."

"That about sums it up, yeah," Tai replied with a nod, though he didn't turn to look at us as he spoke. "I'm not going back to that life. I can't. But it was a stupid decision to get myself noticed like that. I just wanted to see her."

"Wait, so _that's_ why you risked going back to that bar? You hoped you'd find her, and… Then what? What would you have done?"

"Don't know. Let her know I was alright, maybe. Doesn't matter now, though. If Kent is right, and it's her they've found, it won't ever matter."

We walked in silence for a while more, all the way to the docks without another word, in fact. I could almost hear Tai's thoughts the whole time though. Whoever 'she' was, they'd obviously been close. The possibility that this mystery girl was dead was troubling him in a way I wasn't used to seeing him troubled. Once we reached the three enormous, circular landing pads that hung out over the western cliffs above the vast, moonlit surface of the lake below, I scanned the brightly-lit midnight cityscape. Even now, Vale was alive with activity, with shift workers from the industrial district getting off work and the nightlife still going strong in the commercial district. I shuddered when I thought about what Tai had said, that the whole place was running on the whims of a single, evil man.

"Bet that's your ride," Qrow remarked, pointing to a quickly growing black speck that zoomed low over the water below before pitching up towards the pads. A police hovercruiser. I'd seen them before. Quick, mobile little air cars that weren't bound by roads to get cops where they needed to be. This one was blacked out and unmarked, but I could still see the powerful spotlight mounted in the A-pillar and the concealable ports for a pair of Variable Ammunition Vehicular Defense cannons in the grille. Pretty slick, I thought to myself as the small, four-door craft banked in and landed in front of Tai.

"Shotgun!"

"Shotg—Dammit," Qrow growled after I beat him to it.

Tai grinned, snapping himself out of the deep thought he'd been in as we'd made our way across campus. "Guess it's you and me in the cage, man. You ever ridden in the back of a cop car before?"

"Nah. There aren't really a lot of cops out where I'm from."

"First time for everything, I guess. I feel like I spent a lot of my childhood in the back of one of these things. Most of the time I had cuffs on, too." Tai opened the front door for me, leaning in to see who'd come to get him. "Hey, Lennie."

"What's up, little man?" I heard a boisterous voice reply from the driver's seat. "Who's this, now?"

"It's my team, or, most of 'em, anyway. I'm gonna ride in the cage, aight?"

"Letting the lady take shotgun, huh? Man. The L-T really turned you into a gentleman, didn't he?"

"Nah, she just called it before I could. And I can't very well break the rules of shotgun, now can I?" Tai and Lennie both laughed as my teammate stepped away from the doorway and I swung down inside the low-slung cruiser. I found myself beside a gigantic, heavily muscled, dark-skinned man with a friendly ear-to-ear grin.

"Leonard Francis. Call me Lennie, call me Francis, Detective, I don't care just so long as you don't call me late for dinner! And who might you be, miss…"

"I'm Summer Rose," I said, grinning. Lennie's powerful personality seemed to be matched only by his physical size. I wasn't sure how he fit in the driver's seat of the relatively small hovercar. Despite my general introversion, I immediately felt comfortable with the jovial inner-city detective as I extended my hand.

Detective Francis' eyes bored into mine as my hand disappeared into his and we shook. "Rose? No way. You wouldn't happen to be… You Cedric's kid?"

I froze. "You… Know my dad too?"

"Lotta people around here know your Papa, little miss. He's made a bit of a splash helping us out over the last year. Sure got a thing for working in the shadows, y'know? Heh," Lennie's grin widened at the clever reference to my father's semblance. "Damn. So, following in dad's footsteps, huh? Keepin' my boy back there in line?" Lennie jerked his head back to indicate Tai, who grinned at us in the rearview mirror from the enclosed detainee transport seats.

"As well as I can, Sir," I replied. "He's only a problem when I let him get stupid ideas." I shot a pointed look back at Tai, who shrugged coyly like he had no idea what I was talking about.

"First thing's first, cut the 'Sir' crap. I work for a living. And second, whaddyou mean, stupid ideas? Hey, you already trying to get in trouble up here at this fancy school of yours, kid?

"Me? Trouble? Never. Summer's clearly overexaggerating."

"He's not really the problem. It's our fourth teammate. She can be… Difficult to get along with."

"She attacked you in our dorm room," Tai added flatly. "I'd say 'difficult' is an understatement."

"Hmph," the detective grumbled with a shrug. "It's like that, huh? I wouldn't think too much of it."

"Wouldn't think too much of it? She almost sent our team leader to the infirmary."

"Hell, Tai, some of my best friends started out wanting to beat the crap outta me too. Had ourselves our share of brawls. Now they're all co-owners of my gym with me downtown, and half of 'em are on the force with me too. Just keep after your teammate. Don't back down, but don't give up on her either. You'll find something you have in common eventually."

I looked back at Qrow, silently wondering what he thought of that bit of advice as the car sped back over the lake towards the industrial district. He just stared out the window, but the wry look and eye roll I saw reflected in the tinted glass were enough to show his skepticism.

The car was silent for a few moments, moments that dragged on into an awkwardly long pause in the conversation. That was, until Tai finally spoke. "So… Where'd they find her?"

Lennie sighed, as if he knew Tai would start asking questions sooner or later. I sensed deep empathy in the detective's voice as he replied. "Down by the shipyard. Body's pretty clean, not even any blood, really. You'll see when we get there."

"Yeah," Tai said absently, a faraway look in his eyes as he continued to stare blankly out the window.

I saw the blue and red lights reflecting off the walls and widows of the various warehouses and shipping offices that lined the commercial wharfs long before we landed. As soon as we touched down, I stepped out and opened the door for Tai, looking into his eyes as I did. "My turn to ask, blondie. You good?"

Tai forced himself to smile, before putting his hand on my shoulder as he walked past. "Yeah, I think. Thanks." The suspension on the landing claws that had extended as we'd landed groaned and the hovercar rose noticeably as Lennie unfolded from the driver's side, towering over the roof of the vehicle and pointing the way for the two of us to head as he let Qrow out. Muffled radio chatter could be heard from other marked cruisers that had pulled up around the scene. A mobile crime lab was set up inside the crime scene, at the entrance to a small alleyway we could see ahead. Safe bet the girl Tai had been asked to identify was in there.

"Tai!" A man with thick salt and pepper hair and equally dense moustache waved my teammate over from behind a line of holographic crime scene boundary markers. I followed him, stopping short of the barrier as he crossed. Qrow walked right through behind Tai without so much as a thought to whether or not he was supposed to or not, and I followed him in after nobody stopped him.

"Hey Kent," Tai said once we reached the uniformed officer with a bright gold bar on his collar.

"Who're the other two?"

"That's my team leader, Summer, and that's Qrow, he's one of my two other teammates."

"You're cool with them being here for this?" Kent asked as he pushed his thick horn-rimmed glasses up his nose.

"Don't see why not," Tai shrugged. "So long as they don't mess up your crime scene."

"That's just it, kid. There's nothing to mess up. Never seen a killing so clean. Can't find even a scrap of evidence to log."

"How'd it happen?" I asked.

"Single stab-wound, straight to the heart. Coroner said it was cauterized immediately, not a drop of blood on her."

"And you've never seen a wound like it?"

"Let me run this crime scene, little lady. Whatever questions you got, I already asked 'em."

"Oh. Of… Of course. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Now, this is Tai's part. Can you head down there and check, make sure it's your girl?"

"Yeah just, just gimme a sec, alright?" Tai acknowledged before turning back to Qrow and me.

"What did he mean by 'your girl'?" I asked after a moment.

"Suppose there's no reason for you not to know. Her name's Jade. She was my foster sister at our last home, ran off with me. We ended up joining up with the Xiong's together. We'd watch each other's backs on runs of petty thievery. Always said we were gonna make it big together in the organization. Till I got arrested, that was. See, I let myself get nabbed on purpose, trying to escape when things were starting to get bad. I dunno, Jade liked the life, I guess. Told me I was stupid for trying to get away from it all, that we wouldn't ever have it so good, y'know. But she was wrong. I told Kent about her, asked if he'd keep an eye out for her. I couldn't convince her to come with me, but I always told myself, all the way through combat school, that I was gonna find her. I was gonna show her what I've learned, let her meet Kent's family, and hope she'd change but… If that's her under that sheet back there, none of that matters anymore. This life killed her just like it would have me, eventually."

"Let's hope it's not." Surprisingly, the words of encouragement came not from me, but from Qrow. "Your cop buddies could have it wrong. Been a while since you've seen her, right? Your description might not be right anymore."

"Want us to come with you?" I asked.

"No. I'll do this myself." With that, Tai turned and headed resolutely down the alley to where the loose blue sheet lay over a human-shaped lump that was still sprawled exactly where the cops had found her. I saw him draw back the covering, watched as his head bowed and he took the corpse's hand, gripping it tightly as his shoulders shook. My heart sank… I'd half hoped for Tai's sake that it wasn't her. Nothing but futile, foolish optimism, that. Tai pulled the covering down further, inspecting the wound, before crossing Jade's hands over her abdomen and pulling the cover back over her body.

His stricken face was the first thing the streetlamps and police lights illuminated as he emerged from the gloom. I'd seen him shaking, but his eyes were dry, piercing blue and clear as ever. His face was completely devoid of expression, and I could tell he wasn't going to let himself cry. "It's her," he said softly to Kent as he reached the three of us. "She'd dyed her hair again. Got a new tattoo I don't remember her having before. But it was definitely her."

"Alright, son. Now that that's taken care of, we can try to move this investigation forward a little. We don't have much beyond that wound, so all we can do is try and see if it matches anything that's come up in old cases. I'm sorry, but being straight up with you, that's probably the best we're gonna be able to do." Tai nodded forlornly, turning to leave. "Hey, Tai," Kent added after a moment, reaching out and grabbing his ward's arm.

"What?"

"I know you're gonna want to find out who did this, and why. I don't think I'd be able to stop you, either. Just remember, whoever killed her may have known it might bring you back into their games. Just… Stay safe, alright?"

"Got it, Kent. Thanks."

"He's got us watching his back too, Lieutenant," I added, with Qrow nodding his affirmation.

"That's good to know, at least. I know you kids can handle yourselves, else you wouldn't be up at that school."

"It's better than that, L-T," Lennie said as he finished talking with one of the coroners and headed our way.

"Yeah?" Kent asked.

The detective nodded at me. "She tell you her last name?"

"Nuh-uh. Well?" Kent prompted, turning in my direction expectantly.

"It's Rose, Sir."

"Rose. Well I'll be hanged. Cedric's kid. Damn, how'd I not see it? Even got his eyes." I tensed up as the lieutenant said that, but realized it was more an off-handed remark than a pointed statement and relaxed. Kent continued speaking, seemingly not picking up on my reaction. "Y'know, he's helped us out a lot over the last year. You two are living back on Patch right now too, aren't you? I think you guys are on the other side of the island from us, but still. I'll have to pay him a visit, tell him I met you."

"Oh, well, uh, last I talked to him, he's heading out to take care of something. Long-term mission. I don't know what it's about, he wouldn't say."

"Huh. Well, ain't that a shame. I was thinking of getting the P.D.'s council rep to set up a bounty mission. Seemed like the kind of thing I figured he'd jump on the second he caught wind of it. Weapons dealer I'd like to have brought in, nothing crazy. Mid-level crook who's been giving us some trouble up in the northside. Bet your dad would've enjoyed the work, stretch out a bit, bash some heads, you know."

I grinned, thinking of how much like some kind of superhero the lieutenant was making my dad sound right then, but my smile evaporated when I looked back to my teammates and once again saw the pain in Tai's eyes from his recent discovery. "I hope I can live up to his reputation, Sir," I said somberly.

As if sensing I cared more about my teammate's wellbeing than discussing my dad's adventures at the moment, Kent tipped his police cap to me and smiled. "I'm sure you will. Nice meeting you, miss. Alright boys," Kent said as turned to the coroners. "You can take her. Got confirmation on an identity… At least her grave'll have a name on it."

The three of us stood together in silence for a minute, watching as two black-jacketed men with the word "CORONER" embroidered across their backs wheeled a stretcher down the alley to pick up Jade's body. Once they placed her in the ambulance and drove off, Tai finally spoke. "Kent's right. I am gonna figure out who did this. I'm gonna find them, and… I'm gonna make sure they pay for what they did."

"I'm in," Qrow said without hesitation. "This whole thing reminds me too much of me and Raven, man. I know she and I don't get along all that great sometimes, but if someone killed her just to get to me, I'd hunt 'em down and make 'em regret the day they were born."

"Thanks, man," Tai said, managing a slight grin.

I put my hand on Tai's shoulder again. "I'll help too. But you have to promise me something, Tai."

"What?"

"You won't kill whoever did it."

"Why not? It's fair."

"Because that's not what huntsmen do. We don't stoop to their level. You cover that burn for a reason, right? That's not you anymore."

Tai sighed. "Yeah. You're right, I guess. Okay. No promises about beating them senseless though before we turn 'em in."

"That I can get behind," I said, smiling.

"Hop on back into the mako, kids," Lennie said as he passed us. "I'll get y'all back to campus. Heck, I'll drop you off right at your dorm, I don't care."

"The heck is a mako?" Qrow asked.

"Guess you're landlocked, where you're from. It's a type of shark. All's you need to know is it's mean, and it's quick, just like my ride, kid."

"Meh. Doesn't do it for me. This thing kinda reminds me of some sort of cat, actually," Qrow replied.

"What, like a jaguar?"

"Yeah, jaguar, puma, I dunno."

"Well, I didn't name it, the manufacturer did," Lennie said in defense of his car. "Now get in.

"Shotgun!" I called once again, shooting a satisfied glance at Qrow.

"Dang it. Again?"

"Deal with it." Tai and I both laughed as we climbed back inside the car. I knew how hard it was for Tai to see what he'd just seen, but to see him laugh again gave me a little hope. We'll catch whoever did this, I promised myself just then. I'll make sure Tai gets the justice he needs, no matter what it takes.


End file.
